Boost for agriculture exports

by Uditha Kumarasinghe

The Agriculture Ministry has decided to amend the existing import tax imposed on chemicals and other research equipment imported by the Department of Export Agriculture for various research activities.

Public Security, Law and Order Minister and Deputy Defence Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake following an inspection tour to Export Agriculture Centre, Matale has given this assurance to department officials.

In order to promote export agriculture, Minister Wickramanayake has also decided to amend the present subsidy given for export agriculture crops including betel, pepper, cinnamon and cocoa, a Agriculture Ministry spokesman told the Daily News.

Arrangements have been made to commence a special project to promote arecanut cultivation which has a good demand both in local and also countries like India and Pakistan.

The Minister has told the officials that export agriculture crops are a key foreign exchange earner to the country. Therefore the Ministry intends to systematically develop the export agriculture sector to obtain more foreign exchange earnings to the country. In order to make this attempt a success, special emphasis should be laid to develop the quality of export agriculture crops.

The Department of Export Agriculture should take the responsibility of train and provide necessary guidelines to farmers to produce high quality export agriculture crops. The Ministry has also focused attention on projects which can turn the export agriculture crops into finished products and export them later.

The Minister has said that in order to build a prosperous future to the country, steps should be taken to produce essential goods needed to the country locally while forming an agriculture sector which leads the country towards in the direction of self sufficiency.

"Our prime responsibility is to create a better future for farmers community by providing them instructions to increase their harvest."

The Ministry has decided to establish two institutions to provide a fixed price for farmers' products. Arrangements have been finalised to set up one institution for paddy and other grains while another institution will be set up for fruits, vegetables and cereals.

These proposed institutions will purchase farmers' products at fixed prices while providing technical knowledge and other market information to farmers, the Minister said.

"Of the country's total seed requirement, the Government has the capacity of provide only 11 per cent. Arrangements have been made to increase this up to 22 per cent by next year. In order to produce the entire seed requirement locally within the next five years, initiatives will be taken to strengthen the State owned seed farms. Despite the price rise of Urea fertiliser in the world market, the Government will take steps to provide Urea fertiliser to farmers to Rs.550," the Minister said.