Saturday, 25 October 2003 |
Politics |
News Business Features Editorial Security Politics World Letters Sports Obituaries | Plans to revive North-East agriculture by Uditha Kumarasinghe The Agriculture and Livestock Ministry will upgrade facilities at Agrarian Services Centres (ASCs) in the North-East with the intention of reviving agriculture in the region. Following a directive of Agriculture, Livestock and Samurdhi Minister S. B. Dissanayake, a Ministry delegation headed by Agriculture Ministry Secretary Dhanasena Hettiarachchi toured Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Vavuniya and Mannar districts to review the progress of the Agrarian Service Centres in these districts. Crop cultivation is proceeding normally in these four districts and farmers have placed their confidence in the Government's initiatives to develop agriculture in the North-East, Agriculture Ministry Secretary Hettiarachchi said. Following this visit, Rs.1.5 million was immediately allocated to renovate the ASCs in these four districts and also to construct two agriculture wells, he said. Hettiarachchi said several Government and Non-Governmental Organisations are also developing infrastructure facilities in these four provinces including the North-East Irrigation Agriculture Project, Food and Agriculture Organisation/World Food Programme. He said 35 ASCs are functioning in the four districts - Jaffna (12), Kilinochchi seven, Vavuniya eight and Mannar eight. There is a dearth of nearly 60 officers and agriculture instructors in these centres to conduct their agriculture extension services in North-East areas. The Minister will take steps to fill these vacancies in future. Hettiarachchi said the dearth of officials in ASCs has led to delays in agriculture extension services. However, farmers have shown interest in their work have commenced paddy cultivation for the next Maha season. The majority of the ASCs such as the Nallur centre are functioning satisfactorily. The Ministry delegation also attended the Jaffna district agriculture committee and held discussions with Jaffna District Secretary and farmers. LTTE representatives also participated in the meeting, he said. Ministry officials inspected the Farmer Training Centre at Vavuniya. The centre trained 5000 farmers last year while it plans to train another 5000 farmers this year. During a visit to Mannar ASCs, farmers revealed that they face hardships to sell nearly 14,000 metric tons of paddy stock of the previous Maha season. Following a discussion between the Samurdhi Ministry and the Prison Commissioner, the prisons will purchase 10,000 metric tons of rice. The Ministry will shortly settle the paddy problem, he said. He said the farmers also requested to release the two agrarian services centres in Mannar district being used by the Police at present. |
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