The handing over of agricultural machinery under the 2nd Kennedy Round Grant funded by Japan will be held tomorrow (Tuesday), states a media release from the JICA Sri Lanka Office.

The ceremony at the Ministry of Agricultural Development & Agrarian Services (80/5, ‘Govijana Mandiraya’, Rajamalwatte Avenue, Battaramulla will be hosted by S. Amarasekara, Secretary, Ministry of Agricultural Development & Agrarian Services and the guests will be K. Shimazaki, Minister, Embassy of Japan in Sri Lanka and A. Shimura, Chief Representative, JICA Sri Lanka Office.

Long term relationship between Sri Lanka and Japanproduced another fruit with the handing over of agricultural machinery to be used by underprivileged farmers under the Japanese 2KR Grant Aid programme.

This assistance is provided by JICA as a gift to facilitate Sri Lanka’s efforts to improve the productivity of farm households in rural areas and enabling food crop growers to contribute towards national food security in Sri Lanka, while paving the way to alleviate poverty in rural areas.

JICA extended a grant of 520 million yen for the purchase of 1,024 units of two-wheel tractors, 1,027 units of reversible plough, 400 units of irrigation water pumps with engines, 10 units of potato diggers and 50 units of four-wheel tractors with disc ploughs.

The procured items are to arriving batch by batch from January to June.

Ministry of Agricultural Development and Agrarian Services is scheduled to distribute this agricultural machinery for direct usage of farmers and for the government seed farms which provide high quality paddy and vegetable seed for farmers.

Utilization of durable two-wheel tractors enabled to increase cultivation extent from 15.2ha to 21.6ha, reduced working hour by mechanization and helped farmers to expand vegetable cultivation etc. Various positive effects have been observed from the interview surveys of farmers’ organizations which have benefited from 2KR Grand Aid in the past.

Also, it is notable that more than half of the total grant provided this time, on a value basis, will serve the needs of farming communities in the Northern and Eastern regions of Sri Lanka under the on-going resettlement and reconstruction programme.

Japanese 2KR Grant Aid for Sri Lanka started from 1977 and so far, the Government of Japan and JICA have provided more than 49,130 million Japanese yen worth agricultural machineries and chemical fertilizer are provided by the Government of Japan and JICA.

It is expected that present Japanese 2KR Grant Aid would become another milestone of the socio economic development of Sri Lanka as well as cordial and close friendship between Sri Lankaand Japan.