The President also said the immediate attention should be drawn to the problems faced by the farmers, when selling their produce, due to the large numbers of intermediaries.
He made these remarks joining the National Agribusiness Development Programme held at the Buddhi Mandapaya Hall in Polonnaruwa, Friday (June 03).
This program is being implemented as a special project of the President's Office and the foremost objective is to direct the rural agricultural community towards the sustainable income generation sources as well as to socialize them as agricultural entrepreneurs. Through these initiatives it is expected to strengthen their economy and boost their livelihood.
Speaking further, the President said that in some situations, the decisions taken by the government for the elevation of the agricultural industry will be admired and in some situations it is not appreciated and it cannot be avoided.
The President pointed out even though many industrial projects were implemented with this commercialized society, the foundation of our country's economy is agricultural and the country's present and future also rely on the field of agriculture.
The President pointed out that due to outdated theories about the agricultural market, the quality, and price, a number of issues have arisen and to take the country towards the development, it is necessary to implement joint actions by the state sector, the private sector and the public, the President said.
President Sirisena further said that the agricultural sector should be strengthened to provide the required quantity of quality products to the local market, while exporting the surplus to the foreign markets to meet the import export gap.
Deciding the prices of products while making the coordination between agricultural producers and marketing companies will be done under the National Agribusiness Development Programme.
Through these initiatives, products of the agrarians will receive stable prices and accordingly, they can directly contact the actual buyer eliminating the intermediary. Under this initiative the producers can meet permanent and reliable sales partners to directly sell their agricultural products.
According to President Sirisena, agricultural producers need technical knowledge, soft loans, and agricultural equipment, and the benefits of this project would be to provide agricultural products and undertake loan interest relief. There will be a coordination between the farmer and the Institute of Marketing and Public Affairs under the project.
Under this project, required technical knowledge will be provided to the agricultural producers as well as granting concessionary loans and providing agricultural equipment also done under this project.
The President symbolically presented agricultural equipment to 20 farmers representing 10,660 farmers who are networked with private sector partners of the National Agribusiness Development Programme.
New partner agreements with private agribusiness companies of the National Agribusiness Development Programme and the proposal regarding the organic maize cultivation were also presented to the President.
The President presented title certificates to 18 beneficiaries representing 3232 beneficiaries who have registered to obtain financial facilities with the partnering commercial banks of the National Agribusiness Development Programme.
The Governor of Eastern Province, Austin Fernando, Minister of Rural Economy, P. Harrison, MP Sydney Jayaratne, Program Manager at National Agribusiness Development Programme, Yasantha Mapatuna and many others participated in the meeting.
