Agriculture, Wildlife and Forest Conservation Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said that up to 90 percent of the paddy lands will be cultivated.
The extent of land used for paddy cultivation during this Yala season has increased to 446,440.25 hectares as at Friday, June 10. The area of paddy lands planned to be cultivated by the Agriculture Ministry during the Yala season is 601,261.73 hectares.
The area under paddy cultivation up to the first week of June was 266,500 due to the lack of chemical fertiliser, pesticides and herbicides. However, in view of the food shortage that the country will face in the future and urea fertiliser to be provided by the Indian Government and the confidence of farmers in re-farming, more paddy lands are being cultivated.
Minister Amaraweera said that up to 90 percent of the paddy lands are due to be cultivated during the Yala season and the country will not face a major rice crisis in the future as farmers could cultivate paddy again within one week.
At a meeting at the Ministry of Agriculture yesterday afternoon, it was decided to allocate 50,000 of the 65,000 metric tons of urea provided by the Indian Government for paddy cultivation during the Yala season and 10,000 metric tons for tea cultivation.
Minister Amaraweera said that 5,000 metric tons will be provided for maize cultivation.