The economic crisis and the drastic drop in agricultural production brought home the fact the imperative need to 
focus on transformative changes for rural prosperity and food security. The recent farming crisis, stressed the need for transforming unprofitable farming to profitable farming with liveable income farming community by strengthening agricultural supply and value chains. Another fact brought to light was that malnutrition needs to be tackled immediately.
All these are required for meeting the malnutrition and food safety challenges to achieve 2030 targets and commitments to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 2 ‘Zero Hunger’.
The government’s transformative policies and technologies for rural prosperity will help overcome structural constraints. These include small farm size and holdings and poor physical and market infrastructure. Policies and technologies that focus on rural prosperity enable rural areas to become spaces of economic development, and give impetus to growth, modernized agriculture, and nonfarm goods and services.
Nurturing prosperity
Due to the fact that the community at every level has suffered a severe setback in the face of the economic crisis, the main 
objective of the government has been to strengthen the economy and society by creating food security for all citizens. Accordingly, the government has now worked to implement a national integration development program together with all government institutions, officials, private sector, local and foreign non-governmental organizations, religious institutions, community-based organizations and donors.
This program started under the theme “New Village – New Country” is implemented as a three-year plan targeting the years 2023-2025. The program, with the vision of a new village and a new country, is being implemented with continuous follow-up with an integrated mechanism from the policy decision-making parties to the last beneficiary in the 14,022 Grama Sevaka divisions covering the entire island.
Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena travelled to Moneragala, Ampara, Batticaloa and Trincomalee districts last weekend to focus his attention on the problems faced by the farmers, as well as to ascertain suggestions and ideas in order to ensure smooth implementation of the new program. He exchanged views on the new project with officials and public representatives of the respective districts.
Speaking at the National Integration Participatory Development Program, ‘Aluth Gamak- Aluth Ratak’ held at the Monaragala District Secretariat, he said, “We are proud of the farmers of our country. When the whole world was facing the food crisis, our farmers could yield a good harvest. It is essential to overcome the shortcomings in the field of agriculture and make it more productive.”
Resilience amid adversity
He emphasised that today, Sri Lanka has managed to win international trust despite the conditions that were in the middle of the financial crisis. “The economy started to grow based on that trust. There was a time that we should not forget when banking transactions of the country were barred internationally. The authority including Government Agents, provincial council officials, local council officials and the entire public service should understand that situation,” he said.
He praised the farmers for courageously meeting the challenge of rebuilding. “Our agriculture was able to prevent the people of this country from starving, and because of the fact that we were able to produce the rice needed by the country without importing rice, the lives of the people were secured, and it also provided a great support to save a large amount of foreign reserves that could have been spent to buy food from other countries.”
“The land of Wellassa is the one that initiated the freedom fight to liberate the Motherland from Colonial rule. Every government of our country is indebted to this land that made sacrifices in the past. Hence, I am glad this district is at the forefront of the drive to ensure food security,” he said.
The government has instructed the district officials to expedite the allotment of land to the farmer for cultivation. As the Prime Minister pointed out in ancient Sri Lanka there was a system of land deeds. The system was introduced by the colonial rulers. A large number of people living in Wellassewere denied land ownership due to those land regulations. The government has taken effective steps to rectify those errors due to outdated regulations.
An important point raised at the meetings with the officials and the farmers was that the government should intervene to ensure the purchase of surplus production of rice and other grains and provide the farmers with the opportunity to engage in cultivation activities for the next season without causing financial losses.
Vision for rural growth
It is a fact that the rice-growing districts provide a huge surplus to ensure the staple food is available for the entire country. If not for the efforts of the farmers in those districts, the government will have to bring rice and flour from abroad. Therefore, the government intervenes to provide financial support for the surplus rice produced by the people of Ampara or the people of the Eastern Province, the Prime Minister assured.
At the meeting, the Prime Minister instructed the officials to take urgent attention and priority to ensure the availability of fertilizer, water and other requirements of the farmers. The entire public service mechanism needs to make continuous efforts for this, he said.
At the meeting in Trincomalee, Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, describing the Eastern Port City as ‘the gateway to the future development of Asia,’ said that the right to land should be allowed even if there are issues with the ownership. Regardless of land rights, the government’s decision to allow rural farmers who are interested in the cultivation of land should be successfully implemented.
“It is certain that the issues of obtaining the necessary financial provisions can be resolved by the President. A number of issues related to farmers were eased in order to allow them to produce food ten months ago. Loans as well as seeds are given to farmers with the objective of increasing harvest. The Government make arrangements to buy the harvest. The supply chain and network should be interconnected and move properly. Then the farmer as well as the consumer can be assured of food safety. Divisional Secretaries should pay special attention to this matter,” he said.
The new program is handled jointly by the Presidential Secretariat, Prime Minister’s Office, the Ministry of Public Administration, Home Affairs, Provincial Councils and Local Government, Ministry of Women, Child Affairs and Social Empowerment. It is aimed is to increase food production, reduce the dependence on imports and enhance food security, strengthening the export market as well as creating economic revitalization at the rural level for building a stable economy in this country. To achieve these objectives, genuine support of everybody, without party colour and commitment of government officials as well as contribution of every citizen is essential.
