FAO donates cash, 365,000 bags of urea to Lankan farmers

By Ifham Nizam

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has agreed to implement a number of special projects during the coming Maha season to provide the necessary assistance to the farming community here.

Agriculture, Wildlife and Forest Conservation Minister Mahinda Amaraweera yesterday said that FAO had agreed to provide 365,000 bags of urea fertiliser, free of charge, to low income farming families for paddy cultivation during the 2022/23 Maha season.

Amaraweera said that it had been decided to provide one bag of urea each to 365,000 low income farming families countrywide.

FAO has also agreed to provide Rs. 18,000 to each of the 14,000 low – income women based families for green gram cultivation next Maha Season.

He also said that FAO had stated in its report on Sri Lanka that green gram cultivation should be promoted as one of the programmes implemented to cultivate nutritious food crops for the people of the country, especially in the wake of the food crisis here.

The FAO grant aid was aimed at uplifting the living standards of women-headed low-income families, he said.

The Minister also said that it had been decided to give priority to the cultivation of green gram, maize and soya in Sri Lanka during the upcoming Maha season to restart the currently suspended Thriposha Production.