Facelift for agrarian centres

Nethali Struys

Agrarian Services Centres were to be developed at a cost of Rs 70 million by March 15, Agrarian and Wildlife Minister S M Chandrasena said at an awareness program held for officials and committee chairmen at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall (BMICH) yesterday.

The main objective of the awareness program was to get support from grass roots level and to coordinate all institutions into a single process, the Minister said. He ensured that every Agrarian Services Centre would have a fertilizer storeroom, which would be established under the Jathika Saviya Gama Neguma program.

He said the Ministry would renovate 2,000 tanks in Moneragala, Batticaloa, Ampara, Trincomalee, Polonnaruwa and Anuradhapura, for which. Rs 900 million has been allocated. The Minister said a pilot project would be launched in Colombo and Nuwara Eliya to stop the monopoly of agriculture based products in the local market by opening 10 outlets for the sale of vegetables on February 8.