Readout of the Director-General’s meeting with The Honourable Shehan Semasinghe, State Minister for Finance of Sri Lanka

Rome - The FAO Director-General, QU Dongyu, had a meeting today with The Honourable Shehan Semasinghe, State Minister for Finance of Sri Lanka. 

The State Minister thanked the Director-General for the meeting and provided an overview of the challenges the country is facing in the field of food security and nutrition. He further informed on the policy changes on agriculture, including fertilizer and land use policies.

The Director-General reaffirmed FAO’s commitment to continue supporting Sri Lanka to respond to critical needs, such as providing training to farmers for proper use of fertilizer. The Director-General emphasized the need to continue working together to transform the agrifood system in Sri Lanka to achieve a more efficient and sustainable development. He also suggested using good varieties and organic manure to address food security issue.

The two also discussed small and soft credit loans to small-hold farmers and farmers’ organizations to overcome crisis and challenges.