By Ifham Nizam

The responsibility of providing food to the people of the country has been assigned to the Ministry of Agriculture and, therefore, there is a need to expand agricultural research that can achieve higher yields, said Agriculture Minister Mahinda Amaraweera.

However, he expressed concern that the Department of Agriculture has been able to supply only 20 percent of the required quality paddy seeds for cultivation.

“To increase the rice yield in the country, that percentage needs to be increased further. The majority of farmers, in our country, are still cultivating the rice they get from their fields,” he added.

The Minister expressed these views while addressing the 2022 Annual Agricultural Conference ASDA – Annals of the Sri Lanka Department of Agriculture), organized by the Department of Agriculture, and held in Gannanoruwa, recently.

This agricultural conference was held under the theme of ‘Seed the Land – Feed the Nation’.

The Minister presented several awards, such as best agronomist, best new agronomist of the year, best agronomist, best research paper, and distinguished agronomist of the year for his contribution to agriculture.

“We know that with the failure of the 2021 season, we are facing a major food crisis. The responsibility of providing food to the people of the country is assigned to the Ministry of Agriculture and the Department of Agriculture. But with the current food crisis in the country, that responsibility has increased”.

The Department of Agriculture is conducting research on crops that can yield higher yields, however, he said Sri Lanka should follow the example of countries, like Thailand, Malaysia and Japan.

“We have many researchers who have vast knowledge in the field of agriculture. The country can benefit greatly from the knowledge of those scientists and researchers,” he added.