The Hon. K.D. Lal Kantha - Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation

¶ 01 Hon. Deputy Chairperson, let me begin with an extract from Kalyananda Thiranagama’s “Dialectical Materialism.” Progress comes through the clash of opposites; I welcome the Opposition’s critique of our Government’s performance.

¶ 02 Before the election, we said the country had collapsed across four spheres: political, economic, social, and cultural. The root cause was political decay—corruption, theft, waste. Our foundational principle is that without fixing politics and governance, you cannot fix the economy, society, or culture. We have begun to change political culture—ensuring a peaceful climate, with no post-election political reprisals for the first time in 76 years, and conducting provincial elections peacefully.

¶ 03 Stabilizing governance is prerequisite to rebuilding economy, society, and culture. We have delivered zero election violence and a climate for people to live peacefully. Our President’s address to Sri Lankans in the US on 25 September clearly set out how we stabilized and the pathway forward—Opposition members should listen to it.

¶ 04 On agriculture: across the 2024/25 Maha and 2025 Yala seasons we addressed key issues. The primary problem for farmers was not receiving a price that covers costs and yields profit. Over the past year we provided fair prices to paddy farmers, eliminating protests; we addressed big onion issues via the Food Security Committee, adjusting duties and mobilizing Sathosa and major supermarket chains (Cargills, Keells) to purchase at Rs. 130/kg to support farmers. Challenges remain, but farmers now have confidence the Government will intervene to ensure fair returns, strengthening food security.

¶ 05 We launched the “Yaya 500” program: selecting 500 tracts to implement a full Department of Agriculture package—timely irrigation, fertilizers, and agronomic practices—to raise productivity. Farmers have embraced it.

¶ 06 There are no mass agitations now not because problems vanished, but because people have hope and see action. On elections, we already held presidential and local authority polls this year; you cannot demand another immediately to “test opinion.” Our priority is policy implementation under a corruption-free administration—something Sri Lanka is experiencing after seven decades.