Minister advises authorities to speedily implement President’s proposal to turn all agricultural development centers into technical hubs

It was announced in the budget proposals presented recently by the Honorable President Ranil Wickramasinghe that steps will be taken to turn all the agricultural centers of our country into agro-technical hubs. An amount of Rs.2500 million was allocated to the Department of Agricultural Development for these activities.

Accordingly, the Minister of Agriculture and Plantation Industries, Mahinda Amaraweera  advised Commissioner General of the Department of Agricultural Development H. M. A. L. Abeyrathtna.

The minister gave these instructions while addressing a discussion held at the Ministry of Agriculture.

The main problem faced by the farmers in the preparation of land for cultivation and other agricultural activities is the increase in expenses. In order to control these expenses, it was discussed that every Agrarian Service Center should establish a mechanical unit, and the services of multi-purpose tractors required for land preparation should be provided at a concessional price.

It was emphasized here that improved multi-purpose tractors can be used not only for land preparation but also for all activities required in agriculture by giving them to agricultural service centers. Therefore, the purpose of this is to provide multi-purpose tractor services to the farmers at an affordable price through the Farmers Service Centers.

The Minister advised to make arrangements to provide those multi-purpose tractors to every agricultural service center. The drivers working in these multi-purpose tractors are not paid a salary and are able to provide the services on payment of a certain percentage of the money earned as commission.

In addition to this, a project has already been started to bring all the data related to agriculture into a system, and to establish computer facilities for the farmers to obtain the data and information they need at the farmers’ centers.

The Secretary of the Ministry Mr. Janaka Dharmakirthi and others participated in this discussion.

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