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Three-month programme to cultivate unused WP lands

08 Jun 2022

BY Dinitha Rathnayake As a solution to the food crisis that may arise in the future, unused lands in the Western Province (WP) will be cultivated, for which a three-month-long joint programme will be launched.  Under this, it was decided at a special meeting chaired by the Minister of Urban Development and Housing Prasanna Ranatunga, to implement a programme to cultivate 34,000 home gardens in the Western Province, and to use all unused lands and fallow paddy lands. The meeting was held on the instructions of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.  Ranatunga also instructed the authorities to take immediate steps to provide seeds and fertiliser for said home gardening project. This programme is implemented by Agriculture Instructors spread across the Western Province. Accordingly, 300 home gardens are to be cultivated under one Agriculture Instructor. It was also decided at this meeting to implement special cultivation programmes by all Government institutions belonging to the Western Provincial Council. Accordingly, short-term crops are to be cultivated on the lands owned by these State institutions. This cultivation project is also being implemented in all religious places of worship in the province. It was also decided to implement these cultivation programmes in connection with Government lands owned by the Provincial Rural Development Division and the Provincial Land Department. In the Western Province, the fallow paddy land cultivation programme resumed. In connection with this, it was also decided to rehabilitate the canals in the areas adjacent to the fallow paddy lands identified for this purpose. The officials of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Western Province stated that the paddy harvested in three and a half months can be cultivated in these paddy fields. Ranatunga instructed them to take immediate action in this regard. Three Special Steering Committees are also in operation to implement this project in the Western Province.


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