Milk powder imports to be gradually reduced

The Ministry of Agriculture has taken measures to implement 22 programmes based on the policy decisions taken during the past year for the betterment of the agriculture sector by protecting all dairy farmers, chena farmers and paddy farmers, Agriculture Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage said.

He was speaking at a Progress Review Meeting held yesterday (14) with the Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture and the Secretaries and Heads of Institutions of the State Ministries related to Agriculture.

"We have made significant progress in the field of agriculture during the past year due to the commitment of the Secretaries and officials of the Ministry of Agriculture and the related State Ministries. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's vision of prosperity is to stop the import of seeds and to produce the required seeds in the country by 2024 and to achieve the goal of making the people accustomed to liquid milk by stopping the importation of milk powder," he said.

The Minister said it was the responsibility of all of us to work towards achieving the goals set out in the Agriculture Sector as stated in the Policy Manifesto. The Minister also emphasized that outdated ordinances should be amended and updated expeditiously. Attention was also drawn to the need to reduce wastage in the transport of vegetables and to expedite the implementation of the programme of stopping the ill-gotten gains of middlemen and paying the farmers a good price for their produce and transporting them by train to economic centres.

It was revealed that although the Janatha Estates Development Board under the Ministry of Agriculture had gone bankrupt during the previous regime, progress could be made to make a profit during the last year. The production capacity of Phosphate has also increased from 4,000 to 7,000 MT