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4th Annual General Meeting of LOAM

4^th AGM of LOAM was held on 24^th August 2006 at the Auditorium of Sri Lanka Association for the Advance of Science (SLAAS), Colombo 7.

Mr. Vaheesan made the opening address where he explained the growth of LOAM from 1994 to the present. He also tanked all the participants and requested all the presenters to brief their presentations.

The Chief Guest, Hon. Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Chamal Rajapaksa was represented by Dr. D. Wijeratne, Director, Ministry of Agriculture who read out the Minister’s speech.

Mr. Tissa Warnasooriya, Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture also graced the occasion and during his speech he explained how Organic agriculture had been promoted in the Haldamulla / Bandarawela area by the Tea small holding Authority as far back as 1992 – 1995. Mr. Willie Gamage of the Strategic Enterprising Management Agency was a special invitee to the AGM.

Ms. Chandani Abeygunawardena of the Export Development Board (EDB) stated that for over 3 decades the EDB had promoted the export of organic products from Sri Lanka.

Five farmers presented their experiences in organic agriculture, namely:

Kamala Alankara from Atala.

Mr. Terrance Mathagawira from Rakawa

Mr. R.D. Somaratne from Mahawa

Mr. Pakeer Mohideen from Kalmunai

Mr. P Gurusinghe from Galle

The presentations were well received and members presented their views.

Two topics that had been discussed at the previous AGM were brought up, namely:

1. Awareness programs to improve Organic agriculture at grass root level involving the participation of Govt. officers and Farmer societies at district level.

2. The need to lobby and advocate for organic agriculture with the State

Following matters were discussed after the meeting:

◊	A proposal for a new unit to be set up within the Ministry of Agriculture/Trade for certification.
◊	Mr. Jayasena brought up the question of small farmer certification and explained the Internal Guarantee System as practiced by many countries like Brazil and Philippines.
◊	Ministry of Environment & Natural Resources commissioned LOAM to print the guidelines of Organic agriculture.
◊	Mr. Ranjith explained the Auditors report and presented the Income & expenditure account for the year ended 31^st March 2006.
◊	Subscriptions for membership: Suggestions were made to increase subscriptions for corporate Institutions to be 2500/- per annum.
◊	Ms. Melvani commented that every one should make the time and energy to attend board meetings.

Two Amendments to the constitution were mooted, namely:

1.	Criteria for Membership that had been drawn up be ratified by the executive Board
2.	Mr. Samarawickrama’s suggestion that Board Members should attend a minimum of 3 Board meetings.

Nomination of new executive committee members

Election of Protem Chairman: Mr. Mohan’s name was proposed by Mr. Rajasingam and seconded by Ms. Melvani.

The Board members as elected during the meeting for the period 2006/2007 were:

1. Mr. S. Vaheesan - President

2. Ms. K. Melvani - Secretary

3. Mr. Ranjith de Silva - Treasurer

4. Dr. Abdul Gaffar

5. Mr. Prabath Kumara

6. Dr. Keerthi Mohotti

7. Mr. M. Rajasingham

8. Mr. Mohan Samaranayaka

9. Mr. Athula Priyantha

10. Mr. R. M. Jayasena

11. Mr. S. Muthusammy

12. Mr. M.A. Junaid

13. Mr. Thilak Kariyawasam

14. Mr. Upali Munasinghe

15. Mr. Attanayake

16. Mr. Nilantha Kuruppuarachchi

17. Mr. Lalith Abeysinghe

18. Mr. K.P. Hamantha Abeywardena

19. Mr. Viduranga Samarawickrama

Mr. Vaheesan thanked all the LOAM members and concluded the meeting.

Following Documents are available for downloading

1.	Minutes of the 4^th Annual General Meeting of Lanka Organic Agricultural Movement (Download here, PDF Format, 90kb)
2.	Secretary’s Report for the 4^th AGM (Download here, PDF Format, 75kb)


	For Clean Environment, Healthy Food, Social Welfare, New Niche Market.

Last Updated December 2007