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| Wednesday, 9 July 2003 |
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by Uditha Kumarasinghe Sri Lanka has surpassed the foremost paddy producing countries in South Asia and is now the largest producer in the region, in terms of the harvest obtained per hectare, Agriculture and Livestock Minister S.B. Dissanayake told the Daily News. The Minister said at present Sri Lanka is ahead of all countries in the South Asian region overtaking India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal,the Maldives and Bhutan as rice producers. "Even India which utilises advanced technology only derives two metric tons of paddy yield per hectare. However, Sri Lanka has been able to obtain more than three metric tons of paddy per hectare," he said. Meanwhile this years' Maha season has brought a bumper harvest with a record yield of 1.93 million Metric tons cultivated in 660,000 hectares of lands, the highest ever in a Maha season. It is expected that this year will also witness a record Yala season with an anticipated target of 1.52 million Metric tons of paddy cultivated in 401,551 hectares of land. According to the progress achieved in the sphere of paddy production, there is every possibility of self sufficiency in rice within the next three years, the Minister said. Dissanayake said especially, new strategies recommended by the National Policy on Agriculture and Livestock implemented by the Ministry for a duration of seven years with effect from 2003 will directly facilitate to achieve a rapid development in the paddy cultivation sector. Due to self sufficiency in rice within the next few years, the surplus which will be in the market after consumption will be used by products, he said. Arrangements have been made to make various food products such as Thriposha, noodles and biscuits with the help of these surplus rice stocks. "These food products will be a great value to meet the nutrition requirements of nearly 4.2 million student population of the country," the Minister said. |
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