• App to provide agricultural, emergency, educational info.

The Ministry of Agriculture, together with several other institutions, has launched a mobile application named “Geo Goviya” which covers over one million paddy fields and farmers each, in order to facilitate the provision of all types of information pertaining to the agriculture sector.

An official of the Ministry told The Daily Morning that the said application had been developed by the Ministry, the Department of Agrarian Development, the Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Modern Technologies, and the International Water Management Institute.

Through “Geo Goviya” application, one can access information pertaining to the use of lands in Sri Lanka, the extent of paddy fields, the number of farmers, the extent of cultivation during a particular season and the expected harvest, and emergency agriculture related information and educational inputs needed by farmers. The application is developed in a manner that one could obtain information in relation to each Province and District as well as Grama Niladhari Division. It currently includes information on 1.91 million paddy fields and 1.8 million farmers island-wide.

Speaking at the event to launch the application, subject Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said that no institution was in possession of accurate information pertaining to the country's agriculture sector, and that the same had become an issue in implementing development and relief programmes. He said that the newly introduced mobile application, which includes a properly analysed data based system, would be of great support in upcoming agriculture related programmes.