Resource information
Economic development has brought about,
the decline in contribution of the agricultural sector to
the economy of Sri Lanka, and, consistent with this economic
transformation, the structure of employment also changed.
Thus, as labor migrates away from agriculture, the
productivity, for those who remain in the land, needs to
increase significantly. This report examines the constraints
to promoting more rapid agricultural, and rural non-farm
sector growth, and, reviews the recent performance of the
agricultural, and rural non-farm sectors, in particular the
non-plantation agricultural sector; scrutinizes the major
policy, and regulatory barriers, that hinder a sustained
growth in rural areas; and, proposes options for improvement
in the key areas. A critical step to achieve this sector
growth, and meet the changing demands of the overall
economy, is the need to formulate, and implement a renewed
rural development strategy, that builds on synergies in the
agricultural, and non-farm sectors. This integrated rural
development framework becomes an instrument that can
complement a sustained growth in the non-farm sector, namely
through the performance of public agricultural research, and
extension systems, formulated under an updated National
Agricultural Strategy and Policy, that modernizes technology
policies, and regulations, commits to stabilizing tariff
policies, and similarly, commits to implementing policy
reforms in land administration, water, labor, commodity
marketing, and the commercial private sector. Nonetheless,
the report further suggests that prior to implementing this
strategy, the Government should formulate a Poverty
Reduction Strategy, a critical vehicle for completing the
rural strategy framework.
