Moves to stop importing home grown items:

Food Week from June 21 to 28

Hiran H. SENEWIRATNE

The Agriculture Development and Agrarian Services Ministry is in the process of taking measures to gradually stop importing 23 food items, which could be grown in the country.

The Ministry will launch a Food Week from June 21-28 to educate the public on national food products and items, sources said.

Ministry Secretary Ranjith Wijethilaka told the Daily News the Food Week is part of the Government’s Api Wavamu Rata Nagamu program and arrangements were under way to conduct several activities to educate the public on national food items and safety during the event.

He said the purpose of the program was to improve the national economy by enhancing the local food production and productivity, which have been neglected for some time.

This program is being supported by several Ministries including the Education Ministry to make the Food Week a national event and hope to promote it as an annual event, he said.

Wijethilaka said it was found that Sri Lanka imports several food items, which could be grown easily in the country. “If we encourage those food items to be grown or produce within the country we could save an enormous amount of foreign currency,” he said.

During the event, each day will be dedicated to different themes to educate the people on the local food production and its consumption patterns.

Several themes have been dedicated to different days including the day on younger generation’s role and its contribution towards protection and the promotion of national food products, the promotion of health and nutrition, protection of agrarian services home garden and development and its management, day on the religious and culture, he said.