Bumper paddy harvest in North

Yasaratne Gamage in Vavuniya

*Over 390,000 mt paddy harvest last year

*90% barren lands cultivated

A record paddy harvest of over 390,000 metric tons was reaped during the past year by Northern farmers, and the yield is expected to be even higher this year, said Northern Province Governor, Maj Gen G A Chandrasiri in Vavuniya.

Addressing farmers at the National Farmers Week and Agriculture Exhibition at the Vavuniya Seed Farm, Governor Chandrasiri said that he together with the farming community in the North are dedicated to achieving the government’s aim of self- sufficiency in rice by harvesting every inch of the Northern soil. Farmers in the North have cultivated many varieties of crops covering 960,000 hectares while 90 percent of barren land have also been harvested. People of the area praise the government for having been able to engage in their livelihood after 30 years and they are even delighted about the progress in the field of agriculture two years after the dawn of peace.

Yesterday was ‘Agriculture Technology and Farmers Day’ where two seminars were conducted on Post Harvest Technology and Food Processing and Food Conservation. Meanwhile, ‘Farmers Forum’, an awareness programme for farmers in the area was held yesterday under the patronage of the Vavuniya GA at Vavuniya Cultural Centre.

Around 500 farmers attended the event where they were updated on new developments in Agricultural Technology and how to apply them.

Officers from the Department of Agriculture conducted a technical session on dry zone crops and explained the R&D activities of the Field Crop Research and Development Centre, at Mahailluppallama.

The session was also extended to educate the farmers on post harvest handling and processing. Agriculture Ministry, Additional Secretary Dr D B T Wijeratne said that the session on accelerated development programme on the cultivation of pulses would be highly beneficial to the northern farmers.

Agriculture Ministry Project Additional Secretary Shantha Ametiyagoda said that during the last three days more than 80,000 visitors viewed the exhibition and among them the majority was schoolchildren.

He further noted that the event attracts an average of 25,000 visitors a day.