Agricultural project in East:

FAO approves US $ 7.3 m

The Director General of the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has approved a project entitled 'Enhancing Food Security and Nutrition among the most vulnerable farm families in Eastern Sri Lanka', for the value of Euro 5,127,252(US $ 7.3 million) .

The project is funded by a donation to the FAO from the European Commission.

The project's objective is to restore and enhance agricultural production to ensure food security and improve nutrition for the returning or recently resettled farming activities in the Trincomalee and Batticaloa districts.

This project will directly assist 20,000 farming families, enabling them to restart the production of rice, other field crops, vegetables, fruits and poultry.

The project activities are also expected to indirectly benefit a further 100,000 rural families by increasing the availability of locally produced food.

The beneficiary families will receive assistance in clearing their former farmland, preparing paddy fields, and rehabilitating irrigation tanks and small scale irrigation channels.

The beneficiaries will be provided with improved seed varieties, fertilisers and agricultural tools, to enhance food security and promote income generating opportunities.

Sri Lanka Ambassador to Italy and Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to FAO Hemantha Warnakulasuriya, whilst welcoming the approval of the FAO project funded by the European Commission, said the project will make a significant impact in increasing the production of rice and vegetables, and diverse the agricultural production by increasing poultry and horticulture, which will undoubtedly lead to improved incomes for the beneficiary families.

Thanking the Director General of FAO for approving the project, and the European Commission for donating the required funds, Warnakulasuriya said this was a manifestation of support of the international community to the efforts of the Sri Lankan Government, led by President Mahinda Rajapaksa, to resettle, rehabilitate and restore the livelihood of the IDPs in the East, under the Negenahira Navodaya program in Trincomalee and Batticaloa.

FAO has provided technical and financial assistance worth of US $ 25,551,420 to Sri Lanka during the last two years.