Agriculture Minister Mahinda Amaraweera assured that there will be no shortage of rice in the future.
The Minister is confident that rice imports could be suspended since the Maha harvest is scheduled to be reaped by next February. He was attending a media conference held yesterday (24) at the Government Information Department.
The minister pointed out that 512,500 hectares of paddy have been cultivated so far, although the farmers had said that they could cultivate 248,000 hectares of paddy in the Yala Season.
The Minister said that since the harvest of the Maha season will be received by next February, rice imports will be stopped and the amount of rice required by the country will be produced in the country and the distribution of urea fertilizer required for the high season has already started.
He said that arrangements have been made to cultivate maize on 110,000 hectares in the future.
The minister also mentioned that Sri Lanka has become self-sufficient in green grams, black grams and groundnuts and has started producing jumbo groundnuts. Currently, 46,000 farmers have registered for urea fertilizer for the Maha Season.
The minister said 15,000 metric tonnes of urea fertilizer has been given to the Plantations Ministry. Although some people and farmers’ representatives said that the first batch of fertilizer received from India was of inferior quality, the minister said that the fertilizer stock was of high quality.
