The Ministry of Agriculture and Plantation Industries has planned to start a program to produce the total amount of rice required for the country from six major agricultural areas.

This program is to be started from the Maha season of 2024 and accordingly, the program is to be started to get the highest yield in the paddy fields of Anuradhapura, Hambantota, Polonnaruwa, Kandy, Ampara and Monaragala major agricultural areas, which currently provide the highest rice yield to the country.

The aim of this program is to double the production of paddy in five crop seasons.

Currently, the amount of rice required for our country’s annual consumption is 2.4 million metric tons. The total national paddy requirement in 2024 is 4.1 million metric tons. It has been possible to harvest 4.5 million metric tons of paddy in the year 2023. Accordingly, the production of rice is higher than the national requirement of our country now.

The main objective is to increase the yield per hectare from 3.5 metric tons to 07 metric tons in the above-mentioned agricultural areas which have the highest production potential of paddy cultivation. At present, it has been possible to obtain a high yield of 11 metric tons per hectare from certain fields in Walawa and Hambantota agricultural areas.

The Department of Agriculture has taken steps to introduce a technical package to farmers to overcome this target.

Accordingly, popularizing the use of disc ploughs and mouldboard ploughs , leveling paddy fields using laser technology and making large plots by combining small plots, establishing crops using parachute disks, introducing alternate wet and dry irrigation systems, introducing soil nutrient management system, bio-fertilizer production are included in this agricultural technical package.

At present, the yield from most of the paddy fields in our country is less than 1 to 2.5 metric tons per hectare. This harvest is not enough to cover the cost of production for those farmers. Therefore, the Minister of Agriculture and Plantation Industry, Mr. Mahinda Amaraweera advised the Department of Agriculture to introduce a technical method that can get more yield from one hectare.

In addition, for the first time, arrangements have been made to distribute 55,000 metric tons of MOP fertilizer free of charge to all paddy farmers in the island from the 2024 Maha season. The World Food Program has agreed to provide this stock of MOP fertilizer to Sri Lanka free of charge.

Published Date: July 16, 2024