The Cabinet Sub Committee on Economic Management has approved a proposal made by State Minister of Irrigation and Water Resource Management Palitha Range Bandara to grant contracts upto Rs five million to farmer societies to implement small scale projects.

Promoting the repairing of irrigation systems and small canals is one of the major responsibilities of the Irrigation Department. The main obstacle in implementing these projects was the amount given to Farmer societies being limited to Rs 2 million. Contracts over this value were given to other companies and contractors.

This resulted in many problems such as not completing the contracts on time and the longevity as well as the quality of the projects completed by small contractors. In the instance the farmer societies undertook the project they spent the whole amount on the project without any expectations of profits. They were able to execute the projects with high quality due to the knowledge they had.

Minister Range Bandara said that by giving the projects to the farmers will solve many problems since they have hands on experience about their issues. He said by giving the projects to farmer societies it will result in employment generation as well.