Farmer associations to strengthen agro economy

Hathoon Sheriffdeen

AGRI SECTOR: Farmers around the country have formed associations to strengthen the agro-industry. The Farmer federations in all the districts are independent bodies formed by the farmers in that district and are not political associations.

These associations are established with a vision to supply quality agri-food products of Sri Lanka to the global market in 2015. This will enable to build Sri Lanka with a strong agri-economy," Chairman, National Agri-Business Council Mario de Alwis said.

"The National Agri-Business Council (NAC) is now talking to the Farmers' Federation of United Kingdom to affiliate the Farmers' Federation of Sri Lanka. Farmers' Federation of Canada and United Kingdom are empowered in various ways. NAC is consulting these federations to help overcome problems of Sri Lankan farmers.

"The agri-economy investments in the country will be mostly on agricultural items. The country can reduce the foreign exchange spent on imports of agri-products. This enables the country to earn foreign exchange, de Alwis said.

These farmers associations will initially educate the farmers on technical know-how and practices. They will consider the Sri Lankan consumers demands and fulfill local needs. "Sri Lanka is bestowed with enough resources in terms of agri-land, agri-water and agri-environment.

"If the farmers are taught to produce hygienic, safe foods to fulfill the needs of the consumers, we can build an agi-Sri Lanka in a short period of time," de Alwis said

The main duties of these associations are to introduce technical know-how to complement the conservative farming system. "Machinery, fertilizer and technically improved methods of agriculture will be identified and introduced to local farmers to develop the country's agriculture.

"This will strengthen the agri-economy of the country, de Alwis said.

"The Government has allocated enough funds and resources to develop the agricultural sector of the country, which is available in Government bodies.

"Due to various inefficiencies in the Government sector such as red tap and bureaucracy, the funds do not reach the farmer on time.

De Alwis said global indicators say that every production and should have records of production and connected information should be disclosed. Our farmers are not educated in that sense. To overcome these types of issues, farmers' federations will act on educating the district farmers.

"Where the dairy industry is concerned, the buyers of milk are ready to pay a higher amount, but the dairy products are not up to standard.

"To overcome this issue, dairy farmers should be educated and suitable substitutes created to overcome this problem.

This will be handled by the Farmers' Federation," de Alwis said.