WELCOME ADDRESS

By

D A N Dharmasena

President, Agricultural Engineering Society of Sri Lanka

2^nd August 2004

Mr. Tissa Warunasooriya, Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture Livestock, Land and Irrigation, Dr S. L. Weerasena, Director General, Department of Agriculture, Prof. H. P. M. Gunasena, Executive Director, Council for Agricultural Research Policy (CARP), Prof Mrs. Uma Coomaraswamy, Vice Chancellor, Open University of Sri Lanka, distinguished guest, my colleagues, ladies and gentlemen.

It is with great pleasure that I welcome you all, on behalf of the Agricultural Engineering Society of Sri Lanka to this Planning Workshop on mechanization of rice production and processing.  The AESSL is about 30 years old today, and has a membership of about 100 professionals.  The vision of the society is “dissemination of Engineering Technology to Develop the Agriculture Sector in Sri Lanka”.  Therefore as one of our responsibilities we have provided a forum for the discussion of many locally important technological issues related to the agricultural production and processing in this country.

Mr. Tissa Warunasooriya, our chief guest, has a very busy time schedule as the Secretary of Ministry.  I welcome you sir, in spite of all the responsibilities, for raising this occasion and for the encouragement you have given us thereby.

I welcome Dr. Weerasena, Director General, Department of Agriculture for your presence at this planning workshop. I thank you sir especially for your immediate positive response on this workshop and continues encouragement given to us in organizing this event.

We are very happy to have Prof. Gunasena, Executive Director, Council for Agricultural Research Policy (CARP) in this very important planning workshop.  Your presence today will be very important to establish a productive rice research program in future.

A very special welcome to Prof. Mrs. Uma Coomaraswamy, Vice Chancellor, Open University of Sri Lanka.  I thank you madam for gracing this occasion, granting your permission with a great concern and understanding to organize this workshop in the Open University.

I also welcome all the presenters and all the participant from government and private sector organizations, here with us today, on behalf of AESSL.

Although our average paddy yields are reported to be at the second highest level in the region, the Sri Lankan rice industry has faced great challenges due to the increased cost of production.  According studies in the North Central Province, the cost of production per acre has gone up to about 16000 rupees leaving the next return to about 4000 rupees per acre.  In the other words, the average cost of production of one kg of paddy (rough rice) is about 10 rupees.  However these values are highly variable from one region to other.  It has also been reported that the cost of fertilizer in rice farming is only about 11% to 12% while the cost of labor is about 40% of total cost of production.  Therefore appropriate mechanization, improvement of existing milling yields and quality of milled rice, and optimum utilization of byproducts are equally important to pay a reasonable price for paddy (rough rice) and safe guard the entrepreneurs in rice processing industry.  Further, in the immediate attention should be focused towards a very high target yield and correct and encouraging Government Policies related to the rice industry for its sustainability.  All people working in related sectors should working harmony with the great responsibility to safeguard the largest and one of oldest industries in our country.

Once again may I welcome you Mr. Tissa Warunasooriya, Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture Livestock, Land and Irrigation, Distinguished guest, Ladies and Gentlemen, I wish you a pleasant, enjoyable and a productive day.

Thank you very much.