India on Saturday announced that New Delhi would carefully and urgently consider the report of the six-member Indian agricultural experts who toured Sri Lanka to look at the role India can play in revival of agriculture in the war-ravaged north.
A press statement from the Indian mission here said that the expert team would propose areas for short, medium and long-term cooperation to Sri Lanka government. The overall objective of the cooperation remains the rehabilitation of the displaced people in Northern Sri Lanka and to enable them to resume a life of normality with food and livelihood security.
The team of Indian agricultural experts on a four-day visit to the island nation discussed and identified with their Sri Lankan counterparts a number of possible areas for mutually beneficial cooperation.
Specific issues concerning the restoration of livelihood and the requirements of the internally displaced persons in the context of their resettlement in places of their original habitation were discussed by the two sides.
They also discussed the possibilities of cooperation in the provision of seeds for the coming Maha and Yala seasons, supply of agricultural equipment, vocational training, sea-based livelihood activities, exchange of experts, restoration of agrarian service centres, revival of fruit orchards and plantations.
In addition, the prospects of cooperation over the longer term in human resources development and capacity building in the field of agriculture and fisheries were also discussed in detail.
