Foreign Affairs Minister Ali Sabry told Parliament yesterday (7) that the government has already commenced the revolutionary programme of releasing a part of state land for cultivation purposes. The Minister said the government has a great responsibility to protect farmers. He said this while joining the debate on the adjournment motion on eliminating the damage caused to the agriculture industry by wild animals. The Minister also said farmers make up 27
percent of the country’s workforce. But eight percent of them contribute to the country’s economy. It is clear that the money received by the hard working farmers is not enough. Today, the amount received by farmers is very low. As an agricultural country, it is very important to look into the causes. 80 percent of the land cultivated by the peasants is owned by smallholders. Therefore, large-scale cultivation does not take place. 82 percent of the land in Sri Lanka belongs to the government. The government has now started the revolutionary programme of giving part of the government owned land to the farmers. It is a timely decision to empower the farmers. Cultivations largely affected by wild animals and various other ways. Maize cultivation and coconut cultivation are destroyed due to the damage caused by insects.
A programme should be prepared to modernize the agriculture industry. Today there is a large group of workers who are employed for agriculture.Why can’t we achieve the progress that other countries have made in agriculture? Here, the introduction of modern technology and new crop varieties is very important.
The population of Vietnam is 96 million.Today, they have occupied the second place among rice exporting countries.The main thing that affected it was the granting of land rights to the Vietnamese peasants. The government machinery has a huge responsibility to protect farmers. They should be trained to think in a new way about protecting crops from insects and wild animals.There is a need to introduce an insurance system to pay money for crop damage to the farmers.
The use of fertilisers is also very important. It has been revealed that the people of this country are using more than the required quantity of fertilizers in farming. Therefore, about 60 percent of the fertilizers used for cultivation are wasted. Therefore, the use of fertilisers should be regularised. There should be a system without middlemen in the sale of the crop, protection of the crop after harvesting and attention should be paid to food safety.
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