Proposals for the resettlement of people in the North and East

(Summary of the discussion held on 11th August 2009 at MONLAR)  1.The country is faced with the daunting task of resettling almost 300,000 people within the next four months. Most of these are originally independent farmers, with a long tradition of sustainable agriculture. They possess a treasure trove of knowledge which will be destroyed for ever if they are forced, against their will, to work on large export oriented farms operated by large entrepreneurs.  2.Over a period of more than twenty-five years, we have been advocating natural agriculture (with slight change of emphasis, variously known as organic agriculture, sustainable agriculture, low-input agriculture etc.) as the most suitable form of agriculture globally, and more urgently, for countries such as Sri...

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Proposals for the resettlement of people in the North and East

Sustainable Agriculture Policy and Development Programme in Sri Lanka

By Dr. Lional Weerakon, Coordinator of SARD, (Centre for Sustainable Agriculture Research and Development), 1151/58A, 4th Lane, Kotte Road, Rajagiriya, Sri Lanka. E-mail: sustainable_sard@yahoo.com The need for a Sustainable Agriculture Policy The need for this policy is to have a unified approach, to establish a farming system in Sri Lanka, which is environmentally and economically sustainable and socially just. This will guide a process that would bring about a joint agreement and a consensus among all stake holders in the country, about a common aim and a strategy towards achieving the goals in agriculture. This will also establish a framework that would be necessary to bring about specific agreements and action plans that would be necessary between individual institutions...

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Sustainable Agriculture Policy and Development Programme in Sri Lanka

No licences for encrachers of state land in Sri Lanka

(October 30, 2009) Sri Lanka Ministry of Land and Land Development has decided to suspend the issue of licenses for the persons who have illegally settled in state land after 1995. The Minister of Land and Land Development Jeevan Kumarathunga says that the step was taken to discourage encroachment of state land by people. Encroaching has several dimensions and the low income group people settle in state land due to poverty while the politically backed affluent persons encroach valuable state land for business purposes. Clearing state forests for cultivation also takes place in mass scale and this has also generated issues such as man-elephant conflicts. However, the worst kind of encroachment takes place with the support of the government politicians and the affluent encroaches obtain the...

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in encroach , land , land grabbing , Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka to import rice

(October 30, 2009) Sri Lanka government has allocated funds to import 50,000 metric tons of rice. The imported stocks are to be used as buffer stocks ahead of the elections. Sri Lanka has anticipated rice price hikes and shortages in near future. President Mahinda Rajapakse said recently in a discussion with the pro-government trade union leaders that there is a conspiracy against the government by the traders to create an artificial rice shortage. Rice is the major staple food of the Sri Lankans. Sri Lanka is facing a drought situation with the delay if the monsoon rains and thousands of acres of rice fields have been abandoned due to water...

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in rice farming , Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka to increase fines for the misuse of pesticides

(October 26, 2009) Sri Lanka Pesticides Registrar's office says that the cabinet has approved the increase of the fine for the misuse of pesticides to Rs. 500,000 from present Rs. 10,000. The amendments to the relevant Acts are to be moved in the parliament soon. The office also says that around 70% of the pesticides users in Sri Lanka do not use the recommendations relevant to use of the agro-chemicals. Use of pesticides was popularized by the authorities during the 1970s green revolution and now it is widespread among the farmers of cash cro...

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in pesticides , Sri Lanka

පහතරට තේ මිළ ඉහළට

(2009 ඔක්තෝබර් 20) පහතරට තේ මිල ඉහළ යාම නිසා කළුතර,ගාල්ල, මාතර දිස්ත්‍රික්කයන්හි කුඩා තේ ඉඩම් හිමියන්ගේ ආදායම් ඉහළ ගොස් තිබේ.  2008 වසරේ අවසන් කාර්තුවේදී රුපියල් 35ටත් අඩුවෙන් අලෙවි වූ අමු තේ දළු කිලෝවේ මිල දැන් රුපියල් 70 ඉක්මවා ඉහළ ගොස් තිබේ.  සම්ප්‍රදායික මෙන්ම සී.ටී.සී. තේවලටද වෙළෙඳ පොළේ හොඳ මිලක් ...

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in පහතරට තේ

www.navagoviya.org

(October 12, 2009) Sri Lanka Information and Communication Technology Agency together with CIC Agri Businesses has developed an informative website exclusively for the benefit of Rural Farmers in Sri Lanka. Access to the website for farmers have been arranged through fifty   Nenasala Centers that have been set up islandwide. Recently CIC Agri Businesses conducted a residential training programme for 70 Nenasala Officers in order to get them familiarized on the website and the technicalities. The website could be accessed through www.navagoviya.org. information on the web and will be available in both Sinhala and Tamil. The website will contain most of the farmers’ requirement  in relation to Crops, management practices, pests and diseases, latest technologies adapted and a...

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in www.navagoviya.org

නව කුරුඳු ප්‍රභේද 2ක් සොයා ගැනේ

මහින්ද කුලතුංග (දිනමිණ, 2009 ඔක්තෝබර් 12) වැඩි අස්වැන්නක් ලබාදෙන නව කුරුඳු ප්‍රභේද දෙකක් අපනයන කෘෂිකර්ම දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව මගින් සොයාගෙන තිබේ. එහි පර්යේෂණ ආයතනය මඟින් වසර ගණනාවක සිට කරන ලද පර්යේෂණයක ප්‍රතිඵලයක් වශයෙන් ‘ශශ්‍රී විජය’ සහ ‘ශ්‍රී ගැමුණු’ නමැති නව ප්‍රභේද දෙක සොයාගෙන තිබේ. මේ නව ප්‍රභේද දෙක පැණි මිරිස් කුරුඳු වර්ගයට අයත් වන බව අපනයන කෘෂිකර්ම අධ්‍යක්ෂ ජනරාල් ඩබ්ලිව්. ඩී. එල්. ගුණරත්න මහතා පවසයි. ‘ශ්‍රී ගැමුණු’ කුරුඳු ප්‍රභේදයේ කුරුඳු පොතු අස්වැන්න හෙක්ටයාරයකට කිලෝග්‍රෑම් 1100ක් ලබාගැනීමට හැකි බවත් ‘ශශ්‍රී විජය’ කුරුඳු ප්‍රභේදයේ හෙක්ටයාරයකට කිලෝ 1300ක් ලබාගත හැකි බවත් අධ්‍යක්ෂ ජනරාල්වරයා කියා සිටියි. වර්තමානයේදී සාමාන්‍යයෙන්Publish...

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in කුරුඳු

New laws on pesticide use

(October 07, 2009) New regulations on the use of pesticide will be gazetted this year to ensure the safe use of pesticides, said senior research officer of the Peradeniya Registrar of Pesticides, Sumith Jayakody. Addressing a media awareness program organised by the Health Education Bureau together with CropLife and Toxicology Society, he said new regulations will be applied to pest control services, labelling information, training of pesticides applicators and penalty structure. After effects * Pesticide poisoning deaths: 1,242 * Admitted to hospital: 16,876 * Seventy percent use more than stipulated dosage of pesticides * Eight percent had intense toxicity following spraying “The fine for the misuse of pesticides will be...

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Agriculture , pesticides , Sri Lanka

කිරි නිෂ්පාදනයට තොරතුරු තාක්ෂණය

Labels: ශ්‍රී ලංකා තොරතුරු හා සන්නිවේදන තාක්ෂණ නියෝජිතායතනය (ICTA) (2009 ඔක්තෝබර් 01 - W3Lanka) තොරතුරු හා සන්නිවේදන තාක්ෂණ ක්ෂේත්‍රයේ ආධාරයෙන් දේශීය කිරි කර්මාන්තය ශක්තිමත් කිරීමට ශ්‍රී ලංකා තොරතුරු හා සන්නිවේදන තාක්ෂණ  නියෝජිතායතනය (ICTA) පියවර ගනී. ජංගම දුරකථන භාවිත කරමින් දෛනික කිරි මිල ගණන්, අභිජනන කටයුතු ,කිරි ගවයින්ගේ සෞඛ්‍ය ආදී කිරි කර්මාන්තයට අතිශයින් වැදගත් තොරතුරු හා සේවා ගැන කෙටි පණිවිඩ (SMS) ඔස්සේ අවශ්‍ය තොරතුරු හා සේවා ලබා ගැනීමට කිරි ගොවියාට මෙමගින් හැකි බව නියෝජිතායතනයේ මෙහෙයුම් ප්‍රධානී රෙෂාන් දේවපුර පවසයි. කිරි කර්මාන්තය ජීවනෝපායක් වශයෙන් සාර්ථක ලෙස දැනට සිදු කරගෙන යනු ලබන කුරුණැගල දිස්ත්‍රික්කයට අයත් නාරම්මල...

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in කිරි