Minister of Agriculture and Plantation Industries Mahinda Amaraweera, announced that the government has decided to provide free MOP [Muriate of Potassium]  fertilizer for paddy cultivation to farmers for the next two seasons.

He also stated that a national week for the implementation of the Youth Agri-Entrepreneurship Village Program will be held from July 01st to 07th.

Minister Amaraweera made these remarks during a press briefing themed “Collective path to a Stable Country”, held at the Presidential Media Centre (PMC) on Wednesday (26).

Addressing the press briefing, the minister further elaborated;

The Ministry of Agriculture and Plantation Industries has launched various programs to attract youth to the agriculture sector. As part of this effort, 160 villages across the 25 districts in the country have been selected to become Youth Agri-Entrepreneurship Villages.  To support this initiative, a national week for the Youth Agri-Entrepreneurship Village Program will be held from July 01st to 07th. In the first phase, Rs.10 million will be allocated for projects in each village.

In 2022, the country faced a rice shortage and had to import 800,000 metric tons of rice and the government had to spend about USD 300 million. However, in 2023, the country was able to produce its entire rice requirement. For 2024, the national rice requirement is 4.1 million metric tons, and the total rice production in 2023 was 4.5 million metric tons. Our goal is to double rice cultivation over the next five cropping seasons.

In order to increase the productivity of paddy cultivation, special programs will be implemented to boost rice yield across 100,000 hectares in various areas. Recent years have seen an increase in crop damage due to climatic effects.