Web of Life

"The government’s programmes of rehabilitating 10,000 tanks and asveddumising abandoned paddy fields will definitely be an impetus for promoting paddy cultivation in Sri Lanka and make the nation self-sufficient in its food requirements" said the Matara District M. P., Jinadasa Kitulegoda.

Addressing a meeting at Paraduwa Yaya, Elgiriya in Akuressa to commence paddy cultivation activities in a 165-acre field (yaya), Mr. Kitulegoda said the field had been left fallow for a number of years and the event was being held to coincide with the World Food Day organised by the cultivation committees of Elgiriya, Paraduwa and Pahuranwila.

Mr. Kitulegoda further said that the ill planned Nilwala Ganga scheme had been a bane of farmers in most parts of the district whose once flourishing paddy fields had been reduced to mere barren lands due to various factors.

The biggest problem of the farmers in the country was lack of water for their cultivation activities and the Ministry of Agriculture was doing its best to solve the problem by its methodical plans and co-ordinating relevant state organisations for this purpose.

However, the leadership of the farming community was also very essential to make this programme a real success, he said.

The Ven. Paraduwa Jinaratane Thero, chief incumbent, Kahawilgoda Purana Viharaya, Elgiriya said that Sri Lankans though they had an agro based culture with a proud history had gradually had become a nation of idlers or lotus eaters and had abandoned their farming activities following foreign invasions and switched on to white collar jobs.

D. Weerasinghe, Divisional Secretary, Malimboda who is also the acting Divisional Secretary for Akuressa, said that steps would be taken to rehabilitate irrigation anicuts and channels in the yayas of both Akuressa and Malimboda to provide water requirements of the farmers, before long.

The Assistant Commissioner of Agrarian Services, Matara, D. A. L. Nimal Chairman, Pradeshiya Sabha, Akuressa, Upali Sarathchanchra, Manager, Ruhunu Development Bank, Akuressa, K. Ariyathilake and I. P. Wickramapala also spoke.