President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has appointed a 14-member Presidential Task Force for Green Agriculture with a mandate to formulate a systematic program for sustainable maintenance of green agriculture.
A release from the President’s Media Division stated, “It has been emphatically stated in the “Vistas of Prosperity and splendour” Policy Statement that action would be initiated to build an agricultural economy and make available toxin-free agricultural products for local and international consumer within the next decade as well as to introduce eco-friendly crops.” It said, “A key objective of the Government is to create an eco-friendly, healthy green agriculture to minimise environment pollution by chemical waste.”
Taking into consideration the need to minimise hazardous agro chemicals through research and new inventions and for eco-friendly organic fertiliser production that suit the local environmental conditions to be incentivised, President Rajapaksa appointed this Task Force on Friday through an Extraordinary Gazette notification.
The Mandate of the Task Force include formulating a systematic program for sustainable maintenance of green agriculture, identifying the organic fertiliser required for various crops and improving the quality of such fertiliser production, producing pesticides and weedicides locally, identifying methodologies and monitoring mechanism for importing the limited scale possible shortages with high standards on the approval of the Sri Lanka Standards Institute in meeting the requirements through local production, enhancing the communication in transmitting to the public the health-related socio-economic benefits to be accrued from organic food production and consumption and enlisting the active support of the public service in this process and broadening the organic agriculture extension services at field level. Through the Gazette, the President directed the Presidential Task Force for Green Agriculture to liaise with the Economic Revival and Poverty Alleviation Task Force and the Presidential Task Force for the creation of a Green Sri Lanka with sustainable solutions for climate changes.
The Task Force is Chaired by Vijith Welikala. Additional Secretary to the President Vernon Perera, has been appointed as Secretary of the Task Force.
The list of members of the Presidential Task Force for Green Agriculture:
Vijith Welikala, Chairman, Wild Holidays (Pvt.) Ltd., Lalith Senevirathna, S.K.B. Kasun Tharaka Amal, Director, Biogenic Green Technology Research Institute, Malinda Senevirathna, Director, Hector Kobbekaduwa Agrarian Research and Training Institute, R.B. Rasika Thusitha Kumara, Climate Smart Agriculture Co-ordinator, Vavuniya and Mannar Districts, Eco Friendly Farming Training Consultant, Dr. B.K.J. Kavantissa , Chief Executive Officer, “Siyapatha” International Education and Training Institute (Pvt.) Ltd., Samantha Fernando, Kangara Holdings (Pvt.) Ltd., Samuditha Kumarasinghe, Lanka Bio fertilizers (Pvt.) Ltd., Ajith Randunu , Green Force Agriculture (Pvt.) Ltd, N.M. Khalid, Lanka Nature Power (Pvt.) Ltd., Shammi Kirinde, Bio Foods (Pvt.) Ltd., Nirmala Karewgoda, Hysoung ONB (Pvt.) Ltd, Chaminda Hettikankanamge, R.K.G. Bio Green Farm, Nishan de Silva, Lorance’s Liquid Fertilizer