After 30 years of war:

Mannar experiencing agri boom after decades

Nimal WIJESINGHE- Anuradhapura Additional District group correspondent

Mannar district is experiencing a boom in the irrigational and agricultural development sector after 30 years of war under the Mannar district's Yali Pibidemu (Mannar Re-awakening) programme initiated by Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa.

Institutional section Chief Engineer of the programme Palitha Wickramatilake told the Daily News that it was aimed to cultivate 30,000 acres under Giant Tank, 6,500 acres under Agathimuruppu Tank and 4,000 acres under Viyadhikulam Tank during the forthcoming Maha cultivation season. According to him around 12,000 farmer families including those recently resettled were engaged in land preparation and sowing with the first round of rains.

"On the instructions of Minister Rajapaksa and being guided by Irrigation and Water Resources Management Ministry Secretary Engineer Ivan de Silva, these three major tanks and its canal systems have already been rehabilitated at a cost of Rs 450 million. The Mannar Re-awakening programme aims at reviving the district as a major rice producing region in the country as in the past," Wickramatilake emphasized.

He said that releasing water from Giant Tank started on November 1 since there was a water storage of 25,000 acre feet out of a total capacity of 31,500 acre feet. The Agathimuruppu tank began releasing water from yesterday, Wickrematilake revealed.

"We are now considering the marketing arrangements for paddy harvest in the Mannar district since there is no Paddy Marketing Board purchasing system in the zone.

"A team of officials of Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) who were in Mannar recently indicated their willingness to buy the whole paddy harvest in Mannar provided that it shall be pure Keeri Samba variety," the Institutional Sector Chief Engineer disclosed. This issue would be further negotiated at ministerial level, he pointed out.

Wickramatilake said with the agricultural sector boom now developing in Mannar, it was suggested to open a chain of rice milling and processing centres for producing quality rice.

Minister Rajapaksa recently commissioned a rice milling centre at Nanattan in Manner, he said.