The government has allocated Rs.550 million to cultivate 14,000 acres of fallow paddy lands.
These fallow paddy lands will be brought under the government and steps would be taken to cultivate them using the funds, made available by the government.
Agriculture Minister Mahinda Amaraweera instructed the Agrarian Development Department to bring these fallow paddy lands under plough by making use of the allocation. It has been decided to take over and cultivate 2,774 acres of paddy fields in the Matale, Nuwara-Eliya, Vavuniya, Kurunegala, Puttalam, Badulla and Moneragala districts which have not been cultivated for five years and 11,256 acres of fallow paddy lands from the rest of the districts.
Accordingly the Department has been entrusted the task of cultivating 14,000 acres of fallow paddy lands next year.
The Agricultural Development Commissioner General has informed the Minister that 60 bushels of paddy can be harvested from one acre of paddy and 840,000 bushels of paddy are expected by cultivating in these fallow paddy lands.
The Minister said that the owners should be given six months to cultivate their lands and if they do not take steps to cultivate them during that period, the government will temporarily hand over the paddy lands to the government for cultivation for five years.
Minister Amaraweera has also instructed the Commissioner General of Agriculture to take steps to bring amendments to the Agricultural Act for the implementation of this project.
At present, in addition to the eight districts that have been cleared of fallow paddy fields namely Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Kilinochchi, Hambantota, Ampara, Mullaithivu, Trincomalee and Batticaloa, there are 47,471 acres of fallow fields in the remaining 17 districts.
Minister Amaraweera advised that if the owners do not cultivate all these fallow paddy fields, they should be handed over to the government and given to young persons who have no land to cultivate for up to five years.
