News
Agriculture Ministry allocates Rs 430 mn to cultivate 12,500 acres of fallow lands
By Ifham Nizam
The Agriculture Ministry yesterday decided to allocate Rs.430 million to cultivate 12,500 acres of mainly fallow paddy fields this Maha season.
Agriculture Ministry studies reveal that, at present, the amount of fallow fields in the country, that can be re-cultivated but has been left uncultivated for almost five years, is nearly 47,000 acres.
However, another 50,000 acres have become fallow fields but cannot be used for replanting.
The Ministry of Agriculture has started a programme to re-cultivate fallow fields. According to the instructions of Agriculture Minister Mahinda Amaraweera, the Department of Agrarian Development has allocated Rs. 430 million in the current year to replant fallow fields.
Amaraweera says that the goal is to replant all 47,000 acres that have become fallow fields, year after year, using government funds.
Most of the fallow fields that can be cultivated, but left uncultivated, are found in the Western Province.
The Department of Agricultural Development provides free of charge the necessary technology, financial allocations, and seeds, and other inputs, for cultivation, to the unemployed youth community, to cultivate the fallow fields that have been left uncultivated.
The Department of Agricultural Development has also been instructed to use this amount of Rs. 430 million for the renovation of dilapidated canals, feeding those paddy fields, preparation of embankments, and removal of the weeds covering those rice fields.