Minister of Agriculture and Plantation Industries advises the officials not to give any permission for Filling the paddy lands.
The Minister of Agriculture and Plantation Industry, Mr. Mahinda Amaraweera, advised the officials not to allow the land to be filled for any reason, even though some individuals and groups tried to fill the paddy land in the island and use it for various purposes.
The Minister mentioned this while addressing the Agriculture Development Committee meeting held at the Padukka Divisional Secretariat yesterday (14). In this discussion, the measures to be taken to get the highest productivity from paddy lands, especially in urban areas, were discussed.
Currently, there are about 10,000 acres of cultivable land in Padukka area and the minister instructed the agricultural Instructors and agricultural research and production assistants to prepare a programme to implement a plan for the cultivation of vegetables needed by the city of Colombo and its suburbs.
Also, the minister said that it is no longer productive to harvest fallow paddies for paddy cultivation and also mentioned that measures should be taken to use the fallow fields for other crops.
Cultivation in the Sorjan method has been very successful, especially in the Western Province. Steps should be taken to introduce this method or more advanced methods of cultivation if available. Although there was a shortage of vegetables in the past, due to the cultivation of Sorjan, it was possible to offset the shortage of vegetables to some extent.
Most of the fallow fields are in the Western Province, so many people are asking for permission to fill paddy land. But since the government has taken a policy decision not to allow filling of paddy land, the minister instructed the relevant officials not to make any recommendation for filling of paddy lands.
The minister said that he had recently pointed out to HE the President Ranil Wickremesinghe that some people had deliberately allowed the paddy fields on the sides of the roads to be encroached upon.
Here, chicks and coconut saplings were also distributed to develop Padukka as a youth agri-entrepreneurship village by the Minister of Agriculture..
Member of Parliament Mr. Jagath Kumara, Agrarian Development Commissioner General Mr. A. M. H. L. Abeyratne and a group of officers participated in this event.
