'Agriculture, key to development'

Ishara Mudugamuwa

The agricultural sector in Sri Lanka contributes nearly 12 percent to the country's GDP and more than 60 percent of the rural population depend on agriculture.

The Agriculture Ministry has a very big responsibility to develop the agriculture sector of the country, said Agriculture Ministry Secretary K.E. Karunathilake participating in the inaugural ceremony of a training course on Diversification and Value Addition for Agricultural Products at Hilton Hotel, Colombo yesterday.

This was jointly organized by the Asian Productivity Organization (APO) and the Agriculture Ministry in collaboration with the National Productivity Secretariat with the objective of enhancing understanding of the importance of the diversification of agricultural products, value addition and innovation to optimize income from agricultural activities.

Twenty four officers from Sri Lanka, India, China, Cambodia, Iran, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam participated in the programme.

The secretary said that diversification and value addition to agricultural products play a major role in increasing productivity, income and off-farm employment opportunities in rural areas. There are many methodologies applied in diversification and value addition of agricultural products such as enhancing the quality of a product through packaging, efficient post harvest handling and processing, he said.