Prime Minister D.M. Jayaratne said today country’s youth should be reintroduced to paddy cultivation so as to develop the agricultural sector in the country.

He told a gathering at a ceremony that held to prepare a field for cultivation at Ranmulkaduwa fields in Gampola that “at a time when we wee trying to stand firmly as a nation to achieve our economic goals, economic development was a vital factor. We should understand the importance of agriculture. Today most of our young generation is very reluctant to take to paddy cultivation. All developed countries in the world have achieved their development through hard work.”

“Therefore we must introduce our youth to the fields relieving them of their wrong attitude,” he said. 

Mr. Jayaratne said uncultivated paddy fields all over the island would be taken over by the government and cultivated. He said it was a national wastage to have vast extents of barren land. (Daily Mirror online)