The President was speaking at a program attended by the officials of the institutes under the Ministry of Agriculture held on 18thJanuary  at R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.

 

This program was organized for preparation of the agriculture sector to face the challenges of the impending draught. This also focused on the theme of ‘Let’s get together and achieve sustainable development goals – Let’s free the country from poverty in 2017’. They also paid attention on making the people aware of the government’s economic plan towards making a powerful Sri Lanka.

 

“The government’s objective is to solve the problems of the people in the country. Everybody should get together to win that challenge”, the President said.

 

He added that there should be  plans to minimize the difficulties face by the people due to the draught. “We should use the draught as strength for  development”, he said.

 

The President symbolically presented the compensations for the farmers who did not have any insurance to cover the loss of the harvest due to the natural disasters in the Mahaseason harvest in 2016.

 

He presented computers to the Divisional Agrarian Development Officers. The President also opened the information data system which connects 521 agrarian service centers.

 

Minister Dumina Dissanayake, State Minister Vasantha Aluvihare, and the Deputy Speaker Thilanga Sumathipala were among those participated in this occasion.