Courtesy Adaderana More than a million Sri Lankan paddy farmers in all 25 districts will get vital assistance through a shipment of over 36,000 metric tons of fertilizer handed over today by the United States to the Ministry of Agriculture, says the United States Embassy in Sri Lanka. The shipment of Triple Super Phosphate (TSP), […]

By Abhinav Singh Courtesy The Week Tammy Ben-Haim is the Consul General of Israel to South India, based in Bengaluru. Haim is a highly experienced diplomat with 18 years of experience in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and 25 years in the civil service. Most recently Haim was the Minister for Public Diplomacy in the […]

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Feb 27 (Bernama) – Sri Lanka’s tea production is expected to fully recover next year after last year’s drop, the country’s Environment Minister Naseer Ahamed said. The tea industry, a key foreign exchange earner, saw its output decline by 16 per cent to 251.5 million kilogrammes in 2022. The production has dropped because […]

Researched and written by Mr. Rama Somasunderam retired State Secretary of the Ministry of Transport (1990) and retired Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Mahaweli (SLAS).    This was called the Jaffna Peninsula Lagoon Scheme which is located at Elephant Pass which is located 30 miles South East of Jaffna. The lagoon is 19,000 acres and […]

Mr. Rama Somasunderam retired State Secretary of the Ministry of Transport (1990) and retired Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Mahaweli (SLAS).    The Kelini Ganga is one of the main rivers of Sri Lanka. It has its source in the Central Hills near Adam’s Speak and follows through the South Western Part of the country […]

Courtesy Adaderana Minister of Plantation Industries Dr. Ramesh Pathirana has highlighted the importance of identifying new localities for rubber plantation as a solution to address shrinking cultivations. Addressing an event to launch a project funded by France to support small holder rubber planters, the Minister pointed out that rubber planters shifting to other crop cultivation […]

Courtesy Hiru News The Treasury has released a circular on the government’s program for purchasing and distribution of paddy. The circular has been issued under the signature of the Treasury Secretary, K.M. Mahinda Siriwardena, on the direction of President Ranil Wickremesinghe, as the Minister of Finance, Economic Stabilization and National Policy. >The objective of the […]

Courtesy Adaderana President Ranil Wickremesinghe has instructed the government officials to take the necessary measures to purchase a kilo of paddy at a guaranteed price of Rs. 100. The President further said that the Northern Province and Jaffna District will be developed as a province capable of supplying food to Sri Lanka, the President’s Media […]

Courtesy The Island An open letter to Director General of Agrarian Services I make reference to this subject, which is directly affecting the food security and safety, as well as the national security of our country in the future. Rice, being our citizens’ staple food over many centuries, plays an important role in our country’s […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror The Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) is to charge a fine from the owners of unutilised land within the Colombo City. This was one of the major proposals of the CMC budget which was approved recently. As per the budget the expected revenue for the year 2023 through this exercise is Rs. […]

Courtesy Adaderana The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), with funding through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), will distribute 36,000 metric tonnes of Triple Super Phosphate (TSP) fertilizer to all paddy farmers in Sri Lanka through the Ministry of Agriculture. The amount of TSP provided per farmer will be […]

By P. K. Balachandran courtesy  Eurasia Review High production costs, poor practices and low labor productivity call for a paradigm shift in the management system  Sri Lanka’s tea industry is in crisis. The cost of production of the brew that cheers” is higher and labor productivity is lower in Sri Lanka as compared to other tea-producing […]

Courtesy Adaderana The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has granted Rs. 8 billion to Sri Lanka for the benefit of paddy farmers, the President’s Media Division (PMD) says. The grant comes at the request of President Ranil Wickremesinghe. Accordingly, small-scale paddy farmers cultivating lands to the extent of one hectare or less will receive an allowance […]

Courtesy Adaderana In order to switch to organic fertilisers, Sri Lanka yet again relied on a Chinese company, only to get deceived in the end as the organic fertilizer supplied could not pass the two rounds of the National Plant Quarantine Services (NPQS) test due to high contamination.  Moreover, the Chinese firm also pressurized Sri […]

By MAHINDA PANAPITIYA Irrigation Engineer who has worked for Mahaweli Project since 80s Courtesy The Island As originally planned, the present phase of the Mahaweli Project should be focused on social and economic development of the families settled in Mahaweli areas. It could be done by promoting food production in a sustainable way, to gain […]

Courtesy Adaderana The gazette notification pertaining to the lifting of the ban imposed on the import of the herbicide Glyphosate has been sent to the Government Printer, says the Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, Gunadasa Samarasinghe. The Minister of Agriculture had decided to lift the ban on Glyphosate following inquiries made from various sectors […]

By Sugeeswara Senadhira Ceylon Today Colombo, November 14 (Ceylon Today): China concluded an important International Forum on Hybrid Rice Assistance and Global Food Security in Beijing last weekend, where the focus was on China’s hybrid rice varieties that could revolutionize global food production and ensure food security. Virtually addressing the Forum Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena […]

Courtesy Adaderana Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena emphasizes that since the government has instructed to give the government lands to the farmers of the villages for cultivation in accordance with circular measures, no government official should interfere with it. The Prime Minister mentioned this during the distribution of goods from the Parliamentary Decentralized Fund of Mr. […]

Courtesy Adaderana The special audit report by National Audit Office on the controversial procurement of 96,000 metric tons of organic fertilizer from a Chinese supplier reveals that the Sri Lankan government has incurred a lost to the tune of Rs. 1,382 million in the process. The report, issued in August 2022, also notes that all officials responsible […]

Chandre Dharmawardana I have gone thorough the following U-tube video and I am sad to see this kind of unsubstantiated claims misleading the public. This is just one of many. [ටවුම මැද්දේ වගා කරන, ගල් පොළොවේ කුඹුරු කරන, ගොවි රජාගේ විශ්වකර්ම වැඩ I urge the Sri Lankan scientific community to not to ignore this sort […]

Courtesy Hiru News USAID Administrator Samantha Power announces an additional USD 40 million to Sri Lanka to help farmers purchase fertilizer and other vital agricultural inputs

By Ted Nordhaus, the executive director of the Breakthrough Institute, and Saloni Shah, a food and agriculture analyst at the Breakthrough Institute. Courtesy  Foreign Policy.com A nationwide experiment is abandoned after producing only misery. Faced with a deepening economic and humanitarian crisis, Sri Lanka called off an ill-conceived national experiment in organic agriculture this winter. Sri Lankan […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror The Finance Ministry has lifted the import ban on the popular weedicide glyphosate with effect from August 5 while allowing glyphosate imports into the country subject to import control license requirement. According to the Gazette Extraordinary No 2291/44 signed by President Ranil Wickremesinghe as the Minister of Finance, Economic Stabilisation and […]

Courtesy Outlook Sri Lanka’s army established its Green Agriculture Steering Committee (GASC) to supplement and promote the food security programme in the country facing worst economic crisis. The Sri Lanka Army will take part in a farming drive aimed at cultivating over 1,500 acres of barren or abandoned state land to multiply food production and […]

Courtesy The South China Morning Post Officials granted leave for one working day a week and ‘provided with the facilities to engage in agricultural activities in their backyards’, cabinet said The country’s unprecedented economic downturn has left staple foods in short supply and 4 out of 5 people in the nation of 22 million were […]

Courtesy Hiru News On June 13, U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka Julie Chung attended the signing ceremony for a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Sri Lankan Department of Agriculture, for a $27 million project that aims to double the milk production of Sri Lankan dairy farmers participating in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food […]

Courtesy Hiru News The Minister of Agriculture Mahinda Amaraweera says that they will start a process to acquire all paddy lands that have not been cultivated and abandoned.  These lands will be acquired for a period of 5 years in order to cultivate suitable food crops.

Sugath Kulatunga It is gratifying to see that the grow more food campaign is on the move. The media has something more than the Aragalaya to talk about. But it seems to be ad hoc and not well planned as a national campaign. We have over 20 distinct agroclimatic zones with their distinctive advantages. Of […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror The Cabinet had approved to import 150,000 metric tons of Urea, 45,000 metric tons of Muriate of Potash (MOP) and 36,000 metric tons of Triple Super Phosphate (TSP) fertilizers for paddy cultivation for the 2022/23 Maha season. The Ceylon Fertilizer Company Limited and Colombo Commercial Fertilizer Company Limited to import the […]

Courtesy The Economic Times Both international and domestic buyers have rejected a series of tea consignments due to the presence of pesticides and chemicals beyond permissible limits, Indian Tea Exporters Association (ITEA) chairman Anshuman Kanoria said on Friday. Filling up the vacuum created by crisis-hit Sri Lanka in the global market, Tea Board is eyeing […]