New Agriculture

In an like today when the international economy is controlled by the policies of financial institutions such as the ‘world bank’ etc . as determined by the international trade forces, we have to seek the help of agriculture even today as was done in the past in order to achieve the flexibility of the economy and to ensure the identity of

traditional culture of a small country like ours. Our staple food is rise. Attempts to be self-sufficient in rice has been our accepted policy from the time of our ancient kings. This policy should be modified in a timely and thoughtful manner to suit the political, economic and social forces. That change form time to time. We should be determined to have our agriculture policy adapted in an optimistic way in terms of the open-economy system which is now almost internationally accepted. Paddy field is the centerpiece of sri lankan Economy –S.W.R.D.Bandaranayake.

The problem of agriculture development in sri lanka is the problem of careful conservation and proper utilization of resources. King parakramabahu the great who quite rationally identified this problem, makes the following observations addressing his ministers and other functionaries.