National Agricultural Research Plan (NARP) 2011-2013.

The National Agricultural Research Plan (NARP) is a consolidated action plan for scientific research in agriculture. It sets out the research agenda of the major thrust areas in agriculture. The research plan sets out in summary from the key elements of scientific work to be carried out in a short to medium term (3 years) time frame commencing in 2011. It may however, be subjected to amendments, depending on exigencies and expediency of the State and its public beneficiaries in realizing the expected targets. NARP has been evolved through a consultative and a participatory dialogue in which all those who matter in agricultural development, production and research have been involved. In terms of achievements, the plan will strive to reach the expected goals of a viable and sustainable system of agricultural production that would ensure nutrition, food security and socio-economic progress of the people of Sri Lanka. By the year 2016, in terms of accountability, NARS will attempt to provide evidence that within the limitations of any possible resource constraints, the investments in research have been justifiably utilized, and the following objectives, which have been set by Mahinda chinthana – vision for the future have been achieved in achieving food security and reducing poverty.
National Agricultural Research Plan 2011-2013 has been set in accordance with the priority areas identified in the Mahinda chintana, such as: Natural Resources Management; Plant Breeding; Agricultural Biotechnology; Plant Protection; Agricultural Machinery and Equipment; Post Harvest Technology and Value Addition; Floriculture Research and Development; Organic Agriculture and Agro Forestry; Socio-Economics and Policy Analysis; Livestock; Aquaculture and Fisheries. Agricultural research has made substantial contributions to the overall productivity growth. Agricultural research plays a dominant role in the future due to increasing population, scarcity of land/water and to be competitive under the prevailing open market policies and trade liberalization. Hence agricultural research has to respond to the new challenges by generating technologies to increase productivity and the quality of production of the agricultural sector.
The need to identify priorities in research thrust areas in agriculture will be important for investment and expected achievements in research. This is of particular importance as the human and financial as well as infrastructure facilities in the NARS are limiting. In setting priorities national requirements such as contributions to economic development, food security, export earnings, foreign exchange savings, poverty reduction, employment generation and natural resources conservation should be considered. The research priorities are often dictated by market demand. Prioritization in agricultural research should be handled with emphasis on natural resources management, processing technology, value addition, agro-industry and marketing across the production – consumption continuum for generation of appropriate technologies by maximizing benefits on investment. The emphasis should specially be on areas of current importance such as crop improvement and breeding using modern Biotechnology, hybrid seed production, livestock improvement, resource conservation/ improvement, food technology, post harvest processing and value addition, labour and energy saving measures, water conservation and waste management etc.