Ministry of Agriculture (Sri Lanka)

The Ministry of Agriculture^[1] (Sinhala: කෘෂිකර්ම අමාත්‍යාංශය; Tamil: கமத்தொழில் அமைச்சு) is the central government ministry of Sri Lanka responsible for agriculture. The ministry is responsible for formulating and implementing national policy on home affairs and other subjects which come under its purview.^[2] The current Minister of Agriculture is President K. D. Lalkantha.^[3] The ministry's secretary is D. P. Wickremasinghe.^[4]

Ministry of Agriculture

කෘෂිකර්ම අමාත්‍යාංශය கமத்தொழில் அமைச்சு
Ministry overview
Formed	1931; 94 years ago (1931)
Jurisdiction	Government of Sri Lanka
Headquarters	Govijana Mandiraya, 80/5 Rajamalwatta Avenue, Battaramulla, Colombo 6°54′00.30″N 79°54′56.30″E
Annual budget	Rs. 50 billion (2016, recurrent) Rs. 4 billion (2016, capital)
Minister responsible	K. D. Lalkantha, Minister of Agriculture
Ministry executive	B. Wijayaratne, Secretary
Child agencies	Agriculture and Agrarian Insurance Board Ceylon Fertilizer Company Limited Colombo Commercial Fertilizer Company Department of Agrarian Development Department of Agriculture Hector Kobbekaduwa Agrarian Research & Training Institute Institute of Post‐Harvest Technology Janatha Fertilizer Enterprises Limited Lanka Phosphate Company Limited National Fertilizer Secretariat Pulses & Grain Research & Production Authority Sri Lanka Council for Agricultural Research Policy Sri Lanka National Freedom from Hunger Campaign Board
Website	agrimin.gov.lk

Ministers

The Minister of Agriculture is a member of the Cabinet of Sri Lanka.

Parties

  Governors of British Ceylon   United National Party   Sri Lanka Freedom Party   Viplavakari Lanka Sama Samaja Party   Eelam People's Democratic Party   Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna   National People's Power

Ministers of Agriculture

Name		Portrait	Party	Took office	Left office	Head of government		Ministerial title	Refs
	D. S. Senanayake		United National Party	1931	1946		Henry Monck-Mason Moore	Minister of Agriculture and Lands	[5]
	Dudley Senanayake		United National Party	1946	1947				[6]
				26 September 1947	26 March 1952		D. S. Senanayake		[7][8]
	P. B. Bulankulame			26 March 1952	1952		Dudley Senanayake		[9]
	Senator Oliver Goonetilleke			19 June 1952				Minister of Agriculture and Food	[9][10]
	J. R. Jayewardene		United National Party	1953			John Kotelawala		[11]
	Philip Gunawardena		Viplavakari Lanka Sama Samaja Party	12 April 1956	18 May 1959		S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike		[12][13][14][15][16]
	C. P. de Silva		Sri Lanka Freedom Party	9 June 1959				Minister of Agriculture	[16]
					December 1959		Wijeyananda Dahanayake	Minister of Agriculture and Lands	[16]
	M. D. Banda		United National Party	23 March 1960	1960		Dudley Senanayake		[16]
	C. P. de Silva		Sri Lanka Freedom Party	23 July 1960			Sirimavo Bandaranaike	Minister of Agriculture, Land, Irrigation and Power	[17]
	Felix Dias Bandaranaike		Sri Lanka Freedom Party	28 May 1963				Minister of Agriculture, Food and Co-operative Development	[18]
	M. D. Banda		United National Party				Dudley Senanayake	Minister of Agriculture and Food	[19]
	Hector Kobbekaduwa		Sri Lanka Freedom Party				Sirimavo Bandaranaike	Minister of Agriculture and Lands	[20][21]
	Lionel Senanayake		United National Party	13 July 1977			J. R. Jayewardene		[22]
	D. B. Wijetunga		United National Party					Minister of Food, Agricultural Development and Research	[23]
	Lalith Athulathmudali		United National Party	18 February 1989			Ranasinghe Premadasa	Minister of Agriculture, Food and Cooperatives	[23]
	R. M. Dharmadasa Banda		United National Party	1990				Minister of Agriculture & Research	[24]
	D. M. Jayaratne		Sri Lanka Freedom Party	19 August 1994			D. B. Wijetunga	Minister of Agriculture, Land and Forestry Conservation	[25][26]
				19 October 2000	14 September 2001		Chandrika Kumaratunga	Minister of Agriculture	[27]
				14 September 2001				Minister of Agriculture, Forestry, Food and Cooperative Development	[28][29]
	S. B. Dissanayake		United National Party	12 December 2001				Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Welfare	[30][31]
	Anura Kumara Dissanayake		Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna	10 April 2004				Minister of Agricultural	[32][33][34]
	Ratnasiri Wickremanayake		Sri Lanka Freedom Party	27 July 2005				Minister of Agriculture	[35]
	Maithripala Sirisena		Sri Lanka Freedom Party	23 November 2005			Mahinda Rajapaksa	Minister of Agriculture, Environment, Irrigation and Mahaweli Development	[36]
				28 January 2007				Minister of Agricultural Development and Agrarian Services	[37][38][39]
	Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena		Sri Lanka Freedom Party	23 April 2010				Minister of Agriculture	[40][41][42][43][44][45]
	Duminda Dissanayake		Sri Lanka Freedom Party	12 January 2015	22 March 2015		Maithripala Sirisena	Minister of Irrigation and Agriculture	[46][47][48][49]
				22 March 2015	1 May 2018			Minister of Agriculture	[50][51][52][53][54][55][56]
	Mahinda Amaraweera		Sri Lanka Freedom Party	29 October 2018	15 December 2018			Minister of Agriculture
	P. Harrison		United National Party	20 December 2018	21 November 2019			Minister of Agriculture, Rural Economic Affairs, Livestock Development, Irrigation, Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development
	Mahindananda Aluthgamage		Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna	12 August 2020	3 April 2022		Gotabaya Rajapaksa	Minister of Agriculture
	Janaka Wakkumbura		Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna	18 April 2022	9 May 2022			Minister of Agriculture
	Mahinda Amaraweera		Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna	12 May 2022	23 September 2024			Minister of Agriculture
							Ranil Wickremesinghe	Minister of Agriculture and Plantation Industries	[57]
	Anura Kumara Dissanayake		National People's Power	24 September 2024	18 November 2024		Anura Kumara Dissanayake	Minister of Agriculture, Land, Livestock, Irrigation, Fisheries and Aquatic Resources	[58]
	K. D. Lalkantha		National People's Power	18 November 2024	Incumbent			Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation	[59]

Key objectives

The key objective of the Ministry of agriculture is to:

• Supportive agricultural policy for food and allied agricultural crops,
• Established food and nutrition security,
• Stable prices for agricultural products,
• Efficiently coordinated paddy purchasing and marketing programme,
• Timely implementation of projects, Increase production in selected crops,
• Efficient and effective implementation of accelerated food production programme,
• Efficient and effective use of foreign funds,
• Customer friendly and result oriented administrative system,
• Results-based management in entire government sector. 65

Secretaries

Agriculture Secretaries

Name	Took office	Left office	Title	Refs
K. E. Karunatilake	22 November 2010		Agriculture Secretary	[60]
B. Wijayaratne	19 January 2015		Irrigation and Agriculture Secretary	[61][62][63][64]
B. Wijayaratne	8 September 2015		Agriculture Secretary	[65][66][67]