Agriculture and Plantation Industries Minister Mahinda Amaraweera advised officials to implement the President’s proposal to turn all agricultural development centres into technical hubs.
It was announced in the Budget proposals presented on Monday (13) by President Ranil Wickremesinghe that steps will be taken to turn all the agricultural centres of our country into agro-technical hubs. An amount of Rs.2,500 million was allocated to the Agricultural Development Department for these activities.
Accordingly, Minister Amaraweera on Tuesday (14) advised Agricultural Development Department’s Commissioner General H. M. A. L. Abeyrathna, while addressing a discussion held at the Agriculture Ministry on Tuesday.
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 Centre 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 centres. Therefore, the purpose of this is to provide multi-purpose tractor services to farmers at an affordable price through the Farmers Service Centres.
The Minister advised to make arrangements to provide those multi-purpose tractors to every agricultural service centre. 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.
Meanwhile, 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’ centres.
Ministry Secretary Janaka Dharmakirthi and others participated.
