Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2018-10-23

Food safety enhancement.

- The Centre for Excellence on Organic Agriculture (CEOA) at Makandura conducts research and technology transfer on Organic Agriculture and organic fertilizer while the Regional Agriculture Research and Development Centre (RARDC) conducts research in various other disciplines such as crop improvement soil and plant nutrition. It has been identified that there is a possibility for establishing a new centre for the development of Sustainable Agriculture by combining these two institutions. The combination of these two institutes will result in the creation of a premier institute which could hold the responsibility for providing training on eco-friendly agriculture and project activities Island wide productively, motivating promotion and research in organic agriculture and organic fertilizer and also as the premier institute for local organic certification and the National Reference Unit for soil micro biology. Accordingly, the proposal made by Hon. Mahinda Amaraweera, the Minister of Agriculture, to combine the said two institutes and establish the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture and to provide the necessary facilities for the said purpose, was approved by the Cabinet.