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Agriculture and livestock lack co-ordination - Minister Dissanayake

by Uditha Kumarasinghe

Agriculture and Livestock Minister S. B. Dissanayake said the lack of a proper system for exchanging information has hampered the development process specially in the agriculture sector. Decisions taken by the Ministry and the Department sometimes did not filter down to the grass roots level properly.

The hotline set up at the Hector Kobbekaduwa Agrarian Research and Training Institute (HARTI) will help to overcome this problem which had retarded development in agricultural sector.

He was speaking after commissioning the first ever hotline set up at the HARTI, Colombo yesterday to provide solutions to the problems of farmers in rural areas. This special unit will operate round the clock providing key information to the farmers. The hotline is 01-662266 and the fax number is 01-685953.

He said similar hotlines will be useful for other institutions as well to deliver important messages to the grass roots level.

He said the Ministry will also commence television and radio programs shortly spotlighting the farmer community. At present the Ministry published a newspaper named "Aruna" which is distributed among the Ministry officials and farmers as a good source of vital agricultural information.

"At present, 40 per cent of the people are dependent on agriculture for a livelihood. When others indirectly connected to agriculture are taken into account it adds up to almost 70 per cent of the total population. As a result, there is an urgent need to create an effective coordination among the farmers and all the institutions which are connected with agriculture," he said.

Dissanayake said "production costs have rapidly increased today. But there has been no decline in the quantity of our technical knowledge. The major problem is that farmers have no way to obtain agricultural knowledge. They should have detailed information on the local demand for each agricultural product. Therefore, this hotline service will fulfil that need."

Meanwhile, the lack of close co-ordination between the agriculture and livestock sectors is one of the major obstacles to develop the agriculture sector. If we intend to uplift the economy and increase production, a national policy should be formulated to improve the living conditions of farmers and fishermen, the Minister said.

He said agriculture has suffered a set back due to the wrong political decisions taken in the past. The agriculture officials today have to learn from farmers. As a remedy, the Ministry will provide the latest agriculture knowledge to the officials and agriculture instructors in 8 Agriculture Colleges to develop the sector, he said.

"Our duty is to create an environment for farmers to live in dignity without being misled," the Minister added. 

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