Sri Lanka’s President appoints Presidential Task Force to expedite green agriculture programme
Daily FT: President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has appointed a top-level task force to transform the Government’s green agriculture agenda into fruition, thereby enhancing its contribution to sustainable socio-economic development.
The Presidential Task Force is chaired by Wild Holidays Chairman Vijith Welikala and comprises 14 members. They are Lalith Senevirathna, Biogenic Green Technology Research Institute Director S.K.B. Kasun Tharaka Amal, Hector Kobbekaduwa Agrarian Research and Training Institute Director Malinda Senevirathna, Climate Smart Agriculture Coordinator – Vavuniya and Mannar Districts, Eco-Friendly Farming Training Consultant R.B. Rasika Thusitha Kumara, Siyapatha International Education and Training Institute Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Dr. B.K.J. Kavantissa, Kangara Holdings Ltd. Samantha Fernando, Lanka Bio fertilisers Ltd. Samuditha Kumarasinghe, Green Force Agriculture Ltd. Ajith Randunu, Lanka Nature Power Ltd. N.M. Khalid, Bio Foods Ltd. Shammi Kirinde, Hyosung ONB Ltd. Nirmala Karewgoda, R.K.G. Bio Green Farm Chaminda Hettikankanamge, and Lorance’s Liquid Fertiliser Nishan de Silva.
President’s Additional Secretary Vernon Perera is the Secretary of the said Task Force.
The task force is responsible for formulating a systematic program for sustainable maintenance of green agriculture, identifying the organic fertiliser required for various crops and improving the quality of such fertiliser production, producing pesticides and weedicides locally, identifying methodologies and monitoring mechanisms for importing the limited scale possible shortages with high standards on the approval of the Sri Lanka Standards Institute in meeting the requirements through local production, enhancing the communication in transmitting to the public the health-related socio-economic benefits to be accrued from organic food production and consumption.
It is also expected to enlist the active support of the public service in this process and to broaden the organic agriculture extension services at the field level.
OSL take:
The government of Sri Lanka is committed to meeting the sustainable development goals by adopting policies such as promoting organic agriculture as well as increasing the country’s renewable energy generation capacity. While being engaged in an aggressive development programme, Sri Lanka is seriously pursuing the the establishment of a blue and green economy. All these moves have opened up a host of new business/investment opportunities in Sri Lanka. Given Sri Lanka’s positioning as an emerging business destination in the South Asian region due to the country’s geographical positioning in the Indian Ocean and the many trade agreements as well as concessions enjoyed by the, foreign businesses/investors could explore the growing opportunities in the country’s blue and green development programme.
| Article Code : | VBS/AT/20211021/Z_7 |