in field of agriculture:

Israel looking to support SL

Sanjeevi Jayasuriya

Israel would be looking at providing extended support to Sri Lanka in the field of agriculture for greater technological cooperation.

The Agrotech 2012 held recently in Colombo, provided an ideal platform to enhance facilities to improve agri production and yield.

"One of the key success factors in Israel's agricultural sector has been the extension centres and the farms that act as information distribution facilities. We apply research knowledge and modern technology to increase productivity and output.

The extension centres play a key role in the triangle with the government's support to bring benefits to the farmer community," Israel's Minister and Deputy Chief of Mission Yahel Vilan told the Daily News Business.

"We encourage Sri Lanka's agricultural sector to apply this model for better results.

Israel places greater emphasis on technology to address immediate needs at grass root level.

The two way information flow, facilitates better access to the latest developments, which has given us the edge in the sector," he said.

Identifying needs and translating them into inventions, where mechanism and connection for mutual benefit is essential.

"Our farmer community is less than 3 percent of the total population. However, due to intense use of technology, we are able to manage the same level of production.

This should be the case in Sri Lanka too. The level of efficiency has gone up significantly, which has resulted by being technology oriented.

We intend assisting Sri Lankan farmers to adopt the broader use of technology to improve outputs," he said.

There is a need to develop crop specific technology and help farmers to familiarize with Israeli technology capabilities.

We are confident that Sri Lanka could enhance its agriculture related production, to meet not only the consumption needs, but export opportunities too with the correct technology application, Vilan said.

The Agrotech 2012 also aimed at exploring trade and business opportunities in Sri Lanka and Israel, where there is huge potential at present.