The “Winning Tomorrow” Proud Young Agricultural Entrepreneurship National Convention and Exhibition was held under the patronage of Hon. Prime Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya at Waters Edge.
The “Winning Tomorrow” Proud Young Agricultural Entrepreneurship National Convention and Exhibition was held today (28th) at Waters Edge under the patronage of Hon. Prime Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya. The Smallholder Agribusiness Partnerships Programme (SAPP), operating under the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation with the financial support of the Government of Sri Lanka and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), is scheduled to end in June 2026. Concurrently, in recognition of the agricultural entrepreneurship achievements of Sri Lanka’s younger generation, this national convention and exhibition is held marking a special milestone in the successful journey of the SAPP programme.
Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation, K.D. Lalkantha expressed his views while participating in this program.
“Today’s programme was implemented amidst considerable challenges. The programme was carried out very efficiently with reduced costs. Today we heard a few beautiful words. ‘I never wanted a government job. I studied. I never thought I needed a government job.’ These words were spoken by Anusha Dissanayake. Our country needs this kind of attitude. I am grateful to her for presenting those words to us. Next, Nuwan Buddhika said that after joining this programme, he learned how to manage and spend the income he earns. These days some people come to learn that lesson from him. Then Narmada said that what is waste to one person is a resource to another.
The primary responsibility given to our Ministry is food security. Under the SAPP project, a tremendous role has been played in engaging young men and women in relation to achieving food security in our country. I am grateful to the SAPP project for aligning these young people with the goals of our Ministry.
The next task is building the rural economy. A role that goes beyond our food security is involved there. Supplying our food-related products to foreign markets is also a part of that. It is clear that in the programme presented today, our young men and women have been aligned to this with a sound understanding of the matter.
Beyond food, as human beings we need beauty. We need to delight our eyes. Ornamental fish are something that pleases our eyes. Similarly, so are ornamental flowers. I think it would be wonderful if there were ornamental birds as well.
How to engage the new generation in food security is a challenge. One of the biggest problems in our country is the problem of attitudes. To illustrate this with an example, it is embedded in education itself. At school, we are asked what we want to be when we grow up. At that point, nobody says they want to be a farmer. Nobody says they want to be an agricultural entrepreneur. There we can see that as a country we are facing an attitudinal challenge. Another area is marriage proposals. No parent seeks a farmer or an agricultural entrepreneur for their daughter. So how do we change this situation? I think that when this project successfully brings this newly found group of young men and women to success, it in some way strikes a blow against the former attitude. This project practically helps to intervene in breaking down the conservative attitudes that exist in our society. In that sense, this programme is a very important one that has achieved more than one hundred percent success. Normally when a project is done in our country, people criticize that money was spent and nothing happened.
In order to achieve food security in our country, young generation must enter this field. I offer my respect and salutation to all those in this project who have been dedicated to that need.”
The occasion was attended by Deputy Minister of Industry and Entrepreneurship Development Mr. Chathuranga Abeysinghe, Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation Mr. D.P. Wickremasinghe, Director of the Asia Pacific Region of IFAD Ms. Shereen Tabassum, and a large number of others.
