More cooperation between China and Sri Lanka is something that the Sri Lankan agricultural sector really needs to realize its sustainable development and ensure food security, Sri Lankan Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena said.
In an exclusive interview with China Global Television Network in Shanghai, Gunawardena said the Sri Lankan government is placing greater emphasis on the cooperation of science and technology cooperation with China.
Last year, at the invitation of the local government, he visited southwest China's Yunnan Province in August and showed a particular interest in the state of Chinese technologies supplied in the flower auction trade center and agricultural sector. The prime minister even asked experts about how to bring those technologies back to his country.
"There's a lot of research in China. Their productivity is very high. That is one area where our farmers, [and] our entrepreneurs can take advantage of having a hyper-producing agricultural sector, new areas of investment which can go in for exports not only to China but to other markets. You have all research stations, which have been able to produce high-yielding varieties. Representatives of Yunnan have come to Sri Lanka and we have earmarked two special provinces for this development that could take place, so the close cooperation definitely will lead to better economic prosperity, and Sri Lanka is one of them that would like to cooperate and get the support to develop our agriculture, especially rice farmers' productivity to increase, income levels to increase, costs to be reduced. All other countries are in today's agricultural development because food security is an important area," Gunawardena said.
Sri Lanka is determined to modernize its agriculture to achieve the objectives of increasing farmers' incomes and productivity, market regulation, increasing export-oriented products, and fostering agri-entrepreneurs by attracting the youth to agriculture and making use of information technology.
At the beginning of the year, the country's cabinet approved a proposal for a national policy framework to seek a larger role for the agriculture sector in building a developed Sri Lanka by 2048.
According to the Department of Census and Statistics, agricultural activities in Sri Lanka expanded by 2.6 percent in the year 2023.