Govt. to implement national agribusiness development program to empower farmers

The Government plans to implement a five-year national agribusiness development program to empower the farmers in the rural areas.

The Cabinet of Ministers has approved a program proposed by President Maithripala Sirisena to improve farm productions, provide entrepreneurship training for youths in low income families and provide them loans of small amounts to further improve the benefits of this program.

The five-year program is financed jointly by the Government and the International Fund for Agricultural Development of the UN.

The program aims to increase the income of landless youth and small farm owners from 20% to 30% through providing a good price for their harvest, improving the productivity of the farm and value addition for products.

Under the program six value addition projects have been initiated with the private sector and they have benefitted 5,648 rural agricultural producers. It has also benefited 2,710 rural entrepreneurs by offering small loan facilities.