GR to explore utilising digital tech for agri and commodity exchange

• Digital tech to exchange data between farmers, consumers and suppliers
• Transport Board, Railway and Postal Depts. working together considered

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is considering the possibility of using digital technology as a medium to exchange data among farmers, consumers and suppliers.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa

Secretaries to the Ministries of Agriculture, Internal Trade, Consumer Welfare, Plantation Industries and Export Agriculture, and several other officials including representatives of Hector Kobbekaduwa Agrarian Research and Training Institute, held an explorative meeting at the Presidential Secretariat yesterday afternoon.

The prospect of applying digital technology to facilitate exchange of data to sell agro-crops from wholesale buyers to daily consumers was discussed in depth.

It is also expected to assist the farmers to easily compete and obtain a profitable price for their crops through this mechanism. The President emphasised that anyone should be able to join this digital exchange, using easily accessible and simple technology. The endgame is to create a self-sufficient Sri Lanka, President Rajapaksa further added.

In addition, the digital technology will connect Divisional Secretariats with each other, directly linking the farmer and the buyer conveniently. It is expected to remove the middleman and secure a higher profit for the farmer through this process.

This practice could also be used as a survey to examine the consumer needs of the Sri Lankan citizens. The President added that the Sri Lanka Transport Board and the Railway and Postal Departments should be incorporated in this digitalisation process and its operations for transportation purposes.

Minister Chamal Rajapaksa and Secretary to the President P.B. Jayasundara were also present at the discussion.