new

Steps to Promote Rice Flour in Plantation Sector

new

Many Steps to Raise the Condition of Cultivation of "Bibile" Oranges

new

ICGEB Meetings and Courses, 2006
Producing Maize Locally to Fulfill the Need of It to the Country
Seminar for World Water Day
Toll Free Service - Govi Sahana Sarana - Try for the Best Solution for Your Agri Problem - Call 1920
One Year Practical Agriculture Training Course, Department of Agriculture - Sri Lanka
Steps have been Taken to Strengthen the Organic Farming
New Publications of Socio Economic & Planning Centre
DG's Presentation on Present Situation of Agriculture in Sri Lanka/2005.10.12
ASDA - Annual Symposium of Department of Agriculture - A Great Success
Promotion of Organic farming by the Department of Agriculture
Audio Visual Centre issues 13 CD ROMs full of information
Occurrence of Wild and Weedy Forms of Rice "URUWEE" in Putlam District


Major Projects Implemented by the DOA during year 2004
     1.Project Title - (Agricultural Science Garden)
     2.Project Title - (Cyber Agricultural Extension)

Progress of The Establishment of a National Agricultural Information Centre (Agro -Technology Park)-25-05-2004

Tsunami
     Assessment of the Damages to the Rice Crop in Batticolo District Caused by Tsunami
     Effect of Tsunami on Salinity in Agricultural Lands - Trincomalee Distric
     Effect of Tsunami on Salinity in Agricultural Lands - Ampara Distric

Sri Lanka Trip Report - Mark Bell & Joe Rickman, IRRI ( International Rice Research Institute)

TV Documentry (Sinhala)

December

January

February

March

April

 

Agriculture Technolgy Magazine (Sinhala)

Volume 5 No. 1
Volume 5 No. 2
Volume 5 No. 3
Volume 5 No. 5
Volume 5 No. 6
Volume 6 No. 1
Volume 6 No. 2
Volume 7 No. 1
Volume 7 No. 4 & 5
Volume 8 No. 1

Publications / News / Technical Information / Rice Research / Horticultural Crop Research / Field Crop Research / Extension & Training / Botanic Gardens / Seed Certification & Plant Protection / Socio Economic & Planning / Administration / Finance

A program was launched to promote rice flour consumption of people in plantation sector few days ago. The main purpose for such a campaigne is to reduce malnutrition & ailments. The progrmme was conducted under the supervision of agricultural development ministry according to the idea of Hon. Minister Chamal Rajapaksha.

Sinhala

Orange saplings were distributed among selected farmers. The government beared the high portion of the cost, 75 rupees compare to 25 rupees given by the farmers for one sapling of oranges

Sinhala

You can visit the web site http://www.icgeb.org to know about meetings and courses, 2006 with relavent to International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology.

Program to produce required amount of maize for Sri Lanka was launched with taking necessary steps to introduce new hybrid varieties of maize at Field Crops Research & Development Institute, Mahailluppallama by the hand of Dr. C. Kudagamage, Director General of Agriculture.

Sinhala (pdf format)

Seminar to emphazize the importance of World Water Day was organized on 22^nd March, 2006 at Natural Resource Management Centre, Department of Agriculture.

Sinhala (pdf format)

"Farmers are the kings of the nation". They should not suffer from the problems. Problems should be solved not only providing them the solution it self but with quick time. The new service is remarkably upto the task.

The toll free telephone service aka "Govi Sahana Sarana" will auspiousously start it run on 23^rd of February 2006 at 10.00 a.m at Audio Visual Centre, Gannoruwa.

On 23^rd February 2006, Hon. Minister Chamal Rajapaksha (Minister of Agriculture Development) will declare open the ceromony.

1. Cost of Cultivation 2004/2005
This book releases at the end of each cropping season. It consists of production & revenue cost analysis of main crop cultivated in Sri Lanka. (Paddy, Maze, Union, Up-country & Low-country vegetables)

2. AgStat 2005
This book releases annually and it includes agricultural data published by institutions, cultivated land extent and import export, whole sale & retail prices.

For More Details:

Director ,
Socio Economic and Planning Centre,
Department of Agriculture,
P.O.Box 07, Peradeniya.

Tel : 081-2388206
Fax : 081-2388206
Email: sepc@sltnet.lk

Steps have been Taken to Strengthen the Organic Farming

Two day special seminar to strengthen the organic farming by following several steps as a major strategy for sustainable development of environment, soil and agriculture held on In_Service institute, Gannoruwa.

Airing the views, Dr. Kudagamage(DG) said that Sri Lankan agriculture had a great history and organic farming provided quite a support for hand it over to the next generation of the country as it was.

Expressing his views he further said strategic ways and plans were already discussed these days and would be implemented wide spreaded all over the country. In his full speach he added that more than 200 countries had followed the organic farming and present budget had allocated 435 millions for improved the organic farming in every possible section.

(in Sinhala)

DG's Presentation on Present Situation of Agriculture in Sri Lanka

He gave the overview of the present situation of Agriculture with brief introduction to Department of Agriculture.
Then he described important factors regarding some key crops in Sri Lanka. Then some strategies regarding improvement of crop production and future plans were discussed and their potential applicability in market was described.
In addition to those some valuable topics were discussed such as

• Uplifting Orange Cultivations in Moneragala District
• Organic Crop Production for Export
• FloricultureDevelopment
• and etc.

Promotion of Organic farming by the Department of Agriculture

Farmers have been practicing Organic Faming has over centuries. Really speaking conventional agriculture started from there. In recent time there is an enlightening stress on organic farming all over the world. In Sri Lanka also few interested groups have started organic farming. The demand for organic food is increasing.

Department of agriculture is having a project to promote organic farming in the country with an ultimate goal of exporting them after certifying. The ministry of agriculture has provided 4.5 million rupees for starting the project and it is expected to increase the financial allocation in coming years. Department of agriculture in year 2005 is expecting to lay out a producer foundation in 10 districts with the help of provincial departments of agriculture.

Fertilizer unit of the extension and training division of the department of agriculture is coordinating this program. It is willing to share there experience with interested parties. Those who are interested may contact

Assistant Director of Agriculture Fertilizer unit,
P.O. Box 18.
Peradeniya.
Sri Lanka.
Telephone :- 0094812388229.

'Peradeniya Botanical Gardens at the click of a mouse', Presents pictures and valuable information on the Royal Botanical gardens. It is available in English and German Languages and is a memorable souvenir to any visitor and a valuable gift for those who live abroad. The CD takes you on a guided tour of the gardens giving detailed information on interesting places and flora.

'Peradeniya Botanical Garden

'Vegetable insect pests at the click of a mouse', this CD presents information on almost all the insect pests harming vegetables in Sri Lanka giving the recommended control measures as well. This CD will be very useful to persons interested in knowing vegetable pests and to farmers.

Vegetable insect pests

'Mushroom story', The interactive multimedia CD-ROM provide information on mushroom in Sri Lanka. This will be useful to persons interested in knowing mushroom.

'Overhead Projector', this CD includes information on overhead projector technology. OHP is one of the most useful instructional media hence, this will be useful to persons who work as trainers.

'Flip Chart', This is an interactive multimedia for low cost flip chart. Flip chart is the most widely used audio visual aid used by extension workers. This will useful to all officers who involved in technology transfer programmes, especially for village level extension officers who work under low cost environment.

Flip Chart

'Food Crops',Paddy, Potato, Chilli, Red Onion, Big Onion, Brinjal, Tomato, Mushroom and Banana are the latest IMM CD-ROMs released by DOA Audio Visual centre.

These IMM CD-ROMs include all the technical information regarding the cultivation these food crops. Food processing part is also discussed in this IMM CD-ROMs. The technical information is explained through video clips, digital photographs, graphics and text. The key feature of these IMM CD-ROMs is they are in Sinhala language.
Local research database is also included in these IMM CD-ROMs.
These IMM CD-ROMs are useful to the farmers, village level extension workers involved in agriculture technology transfer. They are useful to the persons interested in knowing the cultivation of crops and students.

Paddy		Potato
Red Onion		Big Onion
Brinjal		Tomato
Mushroom		Banana

'Anthurium',This IMM CD-ROM includes all the information regarding varieties, cultivation practices, propagation techniques, pest and diseases and post harvest handling of Anthurium. Information is presented using video clips, digital photographs, pictures, illustrations and text. This is useful to the Anthurium cultivators and those who are interested in Anthurium cultivation.

Anthurium

These CDs are available at the AVC and at the sales center of the Royal Botanical Garden, Peradeniya.

Project Title - Establishment of an Agricultural Theme Park
(Agricultural Science Garden) at Gannoruwa

Description

The Gannoruwa agricultural complex will be transformed to a tropical agricultural theme park/agricultural science garden/live crop museum without any interruption to the routine research, training and other functions of various units of the Department of Agriculture and Department of Animal production and Health. The park will consist of variety of entertaining events found in international theme parks. These events (dramas, multimedia projections, agricultural cultural shows etc.) will provide current agricultural innovations and problems in an interesting learning environment.

The new trends in eco-tourism will be added to this Agricultural Science Garden with the inclusion of live tropical crop demonstrations, crop museums and bio-diversity parks in an aesthetically pleasing and entertaining environment. The fields of the park will demonstrate current crop recommendations of the department of Agriculture (DOA), traditional and future agriculture to educate school children, farmers and general public.

The park will generate income through an entrance fee from both local and foreign visitors to run the park as well as other components of the project as a profitable venture. Plant and animal clinic and quick soil testing mechanism will be added to the park.

The project will also establish effective information dissemination mechanism through selling publications, booklets, videos, VCDs, instructive multimedia CDs etc. produced by the DOA as well as the private sector.

The park will be an income venue for private entrepreneurs to promote new agricultural ventures introduced by the DOA and promote DOA recommended planting material and seeds through sales ( A one place for all the requirements of farmers; technology, information, in put supply etc.). Agriculture technology of the outside world will be demonstrated in the park to open the window to outside world.

Justification

Department of agriculture complex at Gannoruwa is the centre for excellence in agriculture in Sri Lanka. The main driving forces in agriculture sector such as; Department of Agriculture, Department of Export Agriculture, Department of Animal Production & Health, Faculty of Agriculture and their main technology generation and dissemination units are located around Gannoruwa. Gannoruwa has now become a hub for dissemination of new agriculture knowledge and technology. Therefore, the proposed Agricultural Theme Park (Agricultural Science Garden) at Gannoruwa Complex will be utilized for the benefit of farmers, school children and the general public with the use of all the crop demonstrations recommended by the Department of Agriculture (DOA).

Expected Output

1. Income from the local and foreign visitors.
2. Farmers will be able to get latest information about agriculture through live demonstrations.
3. Village level officers (extension workers, Agri. Research and development assistance, Samurdhi officers, private sector agriculturists) will be able to visit the science garden to learn current agriculture technology.
4. School children will be able to study agriculture for their school curriculum, especially discovery learning in agriculture.
5. General public will be able to add a bit of a agriculture flavor to their front and back yards, finding solutions for family nutrient problems, experience some innovative food recipes, practice some self employment agriculture related income ventures etc.
6. This centre will be an ideal live knowledge pool and an agriculture museum for university and diploma students in agriculture.
7. Leisure park for nature lovers and general public.

 

Project Title - Establishment of a National Agricultural Information Network
(Cyber Agricultural Extension)

Description

The project will establish cyber extension units (rural knowledge centers) at all Govijana Kendra with necessary links to research centers, extension offices, training centers of the Department of Agriculture (DOA) as well as private sector organizations. At the initial stage of the project telephone based information network will not be implemented and CDROM based information dissemination system will be implemented. The pilot project will be implemented with the assistance of CARP and IRRI at 17 Govijana Kendra offices in January 2004. The Agriculture Instructor of the Govijana Kendra will manage the Cyber extension unit. These centers will be provided with a computer, scanner, printer, digital still camera and a web camera. Interactive multimedia CD-ROMs (electronic books) will be provided for these centers. Fourteen CD-ROMs; rice, big onion, red onion, maize, chilies, potato, sweet potato, manioc, banana, papaw, Anthurium, mushroom, tomato and brinjal will be produced before end of December 2003, under the CARP (Audio Visual Centre-A VC of the DOA is the only institute produces IMM CD-ROMs in this country. All these CDs will consist of all the agricultural technology pertaining to relevant crop through multimedia elements (text, illustrations, photographs, video clips, animations, sound clips etc) to create an effective and interesting learning environment. Farmers and village level extension workers will be given an ideal opportunity to learn agriculture at the doorstep. In addition, all these CDROMs will consist of all the local research papers relevant to the crop. CARP will fund for production of CD-ROMs for all the agricultural crops during next two years.

CD-ROMs already produced by the Audio Visual Centre of the DOA on flip chart technology will enable village level extension workers (AIs, Govi niyamaka, samurdhi officers etc) to produce low cost audio visual aids at village level, which could be used for their training classes where they working under resource poor conditions. These CDROMs consist of 1200 agricultural related illustrations done by artists of the A VC, in addition to freehand drawing and lettering techniques, design principles etc.

Farmers can bring their live samples to the cyber extension unit and send through email to cyber unit of the research center after scanning. If the image is impossible to scan (larger sample, field problem etc), then the agriculture Instructor can take a digital photograph in the field through the digital camera and send to the expert for advice. On the other hand farmer group will be able to have a live chat with research officer/training officer, senior extension officers through web conferencing facility (web cameras). A software will be given to each Govijana kendraya to update the data base of the DOA website with information related to current states of crop for e-marketing.

Justification

Massive amount of agricultural knowledge pool, which have been generating, since the establishment of Department of Agriculture in 1912s are scattered, isolated and hidden everywhere in this island due to disorganized information management. Therefore, a thorough investigation is needed to collect such a valuable earlier local research evidence as backup material for present and future research work. This massive knowledge pool also can be used at Govijana Kendra with necessary scanning and editing to suit local farming community. This agriculture knowledge pool will help farmers and village level extension works to learn agriculture in an effective multimedia learning environment. As the DOA was given 9,000 village level workers recently, whom have no knowledge in agriculture; this distance learning strategies will help them to upgrade their knowledge and skills in Agriculture. Therefore, the project proposed to establish effective agricultural information management system through latest interactive Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Further more, there is an urgent need to establish a central information seeking facility for technology and marketing information to enable agriculturists as well as farmers to keep constant, updated contact with net worked information pool.

Expected output

General output

Establishment of quick information exchange mechanism in the agricultural sector of Sri Lanka.

Specific outputs

• Farmers and farm women are the main target audience of the project. Proposed information network with data bases will be provide ample opportunity for them to access agricultural technology and marketing information instantly.
• Researchers will be provided with literature database and visual database for future agricultural research.
• Village level officers (extension workers, Agri. Research and development assistance, Samurdhi officers etc.) will provided with an effective distance education mechanism.
• School children who need to study agriculture for their school curriculum, especially discovery learning in agriculture will be benefited through digital media elements of the data bases.
• The agriculturists of the entire; agriculture sector will be benefited from quick and regular updated information flow.
• An ideal data base (field information at a given time) for policy makers/administrators for decision making.
• Printed information will be given for a nominal fee to run the unit as a self-sustaining project.

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