As a person who hails from a remote village and a farming background, I am determined to give agriculture its pride of place, stressed President Mahinda Rajapaksa addressing the farming community of Moragahakanda during an inspection progress review tour of the Moragahakanda-Kaluganga Multi-Purpose Development Project.

The country’s economic base is agriculture. The importance that the government has given to agriculture has proven correct in the face of an impending food scarcity and changing weather patterns, he added.

President Rajapaksa also said that the mega project, which some categorized as an impossible task, stood as testimony to government’s commitment to deliver people’s demands.

During the visit, the President declared open the completed 300 metre long Moragahakanda bridge built across the Amban Ganga at a cost of Rs.308 million and also the Kapuyaya bridge, as well as several other completed infrastructure projects totaling over Rs.700 million, reported Daily News.

Moragahakanda and Kaluganga Development Project is the largest reservoir project to be taken up for development under the Mahaweli River Development Programme.

Objectives of the projects are providing irrigation water facilities to 81,422 ha in the Dry Zone of Sri Lanka, Potable and Industrial Water Supply to Anuradhapura and Trincomalee towns and generation of electricity by hydro power location.

The direct benefits include increased rice yield per hectare with an additional agricultural production of 109,000 tons annually. The net annual agricultural benefit will be US$ 27.7 million in financial terms. The average annual fish production potential of the reservoir is estimated to be around 4,700 tons per year, representing a net benefit of US$ 1.67 million annually, Daily News further said.