Record groups of Department of Nationa Archives

Department of Agriculture

Identity area

Type of entity

Corporate body

Authorized form of name

Department of Agriculture

Parallel form(s) of name

Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules

Other form(s) of name

Identifiers for corporate bodies

Description area

Dates of existence

1820-1981

History

Prior to the establishment of the Department of Agriculture, agricultural activities were carried out by the Royal Botanical Gardens which was established in 1822.
In 1899 the governor appointed a commission to report on the advisability of establishing a Department of Agriculture. Report of the Committee was published as Sessional Paper No. 12 of 1900. The other sessional papers on the subject were No. 7 of 1911, 13 of 1913, 23 of 1926 and 10 of 1928.
The Department of Agriculture was established on 20th May 1911 as a separate department at Peradeniya with the following divisions: Botanical Gardens, Experimental Gardens, Laboratory and Scientific. The duty of the director would be to advice the government in matters concerning the improvement of agriculture and extension of cultivation.
The department functioned under the aegis of the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands during 1936-1952, thereafter under the Ministry of Agriculture and Food during 1953-1958 and the Ministry of Agriculture and Land during 1959-1961. Thereafter it was under the Ministry of Agriculture, Lands, Irrigation and Power during 1962-1963. In the year 1964 it was under the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries. During 1965-1970 under the Ministry of Agriculture and Food and during 1971-1978 under the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands. In the year 1979 it was under the Ministry of Agriculture Development and Research.
The following are the functions of the department: agriculture research, agricultural education, agricultural publicity, crop production, processing and certification. Experiments have been conducted on cocoa, rubber, coconut, tea, citronella, green manure, soybean and various other products. The results have been published from time to time as circulars, the administration reports and the magazine Tropical Agriculture.

Places

Legal status

Functions, occupations and activities

Mandates/sources of authority

Internal structures/genealogy

General context

Relationships area

Control area

Description identifier

LK-NA/DA

Institution identifier

LK-NA

Rules and/or conventions used

ISAAR

Status

Final

Level of detail

Minimal

Dates of creation, revision and deletion

Language(s)

  • English

Script(s)

  • Latin

Sources

Maintenance notes