Sri Lanka Embassy in Belgium, the Directorate General for Agriculture and Rural Development of the European Commission (DG AGRI) and the Department of Agriculture of Sri Lanka, initiated a dialogue on ‘Environmentally Friendly Agricultural Management’ on 23 May 2025. The officials of the DG AGRI and the officials from several institutions of the Department of Agriculture of Sri Lanka attended the first session of the virtual dialogue.
The EU side mentioned the importance of initiating this dialogue in the agriculture sector focusing on topics that are of interest to the Sri Lankan stakeholders, under EU-Sri Lanka bilateral cooperation. While thanking DG AGRI and the Department of Agriculture of Sri Lanka, Ambassador Chandana Weerasena emphasized the value of cooperation through this dialogue in which both sides could identify areas that need mutual support, improvements and how to address the challenges in the future. The Ambassador also mentioned that, Sri Lanka can learn from European countries the areas such as agriculture modernization, better utilization of fertilizer, increase of yield, post-harvest systems etc. He also invited European officials to visit Sri Lanka and learn from Sri Lankan experts the areas such as ancient irrigation systems, indigenous agricultural practices based on scientific reasons and some agricultural practices that are distinctive to Sri Lanka etc.
Director of Rice Research and Development Institute of Sri Lanka, Lakmini Priyantha mentioned this initiative as one of the important milestones for the Department of Agriculture of Sri Lanka to learn from each other and to develop effective agricultural methods in Sri Lanka in the future. It was highlighted that R&D, innovation and good agricultural practices, could be some key areas for collaborations.
The EU side presented the green architecture of the EU Common Agricultural Policy. He gave an introduction to the EU's Green Architecture, its goals and implementation strategies. They also presented key insights of the new EU Vision for Agriculture focused on resilience and sustainability. The EU officials mentioned the possibilities for EU-Sri Lanka collaboration, exchange of knowledge and best practices in view of the upcoming climate negotiations in Bonn as well. Dr. M.A.P.W.K. Malaviarachchi, presented the Sri Lankan approach to sustainability and resilience in agriculture while explaining the overview of Sri Lanka’s strategies in detail.
Both sides acknowledged that climate change, environmental challenges and food security are some key issues directly affecting the agriculture sector and the world is on a transformative path, and the necessity for countries to get together, learn from each other, and support each other to address those challenges. While taking key insights from the dialogue, DG AGRI of the European Commission assured their support in continuing this dialogue further and they proposed to arrange the second online session after the summer break of 2025.
Minister (Commercial) of the Sri Lanka Embassy in Belgium, Thavishya Mullegamgoda also joined the dialogue.
Embassy of Sri Lanka
Brussels
02 June 2025
