Divi Neguma, a people’s project
A A M Nizam
Ancient Sri Lanka was a network of self-sufficient villages, in which
majority of the population being farmers, cultivated paddy in both
harvesting seasons and during their spare time they cultivated
vegetables in their home yards in which they also had fruit trees such
as jak, mango, papaw and other fruits.
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More paddy lands being cultivated
under Divi Neguma programme |
Every household had a few cows, goats and chicken and from which they
obtained their fresh milk requirements and eggs. They also had a few
coconut trees and several varieties of yams such as manioc, sweet potato
etc. Jak was not only consumed as fruits in the form of Waraka and Wela,
but also as a boiled meal with scraped coconut and chilli mix onion
called ‘Lunumiris’, especially by pregnant women as they believed that
it increases breast milk since the babies were only fed with breast milk
until they reached the age of about two years. The breast-feeding also
was a form of birth control as they believed that a new conception of a
baby do not take place as long as they were breast-feeding.
All households had sufficient stocks of rice, dried sliced jak and
bread fruit known as ‘Atukos’, varieties of grams and cereals such as
‘kurakkan’, ‘meneri’ etc. Those who were not involved in paddy
cultivation were involved in other vocations such as carpentry, pottery,
metallurgy, coir industry etc. The people left their villages only on
pilgrimages and on periodical visits to weekly ‘Polas’ or towns to buy
things such as salt and dress material (a kambaya or a sarong/banyan
etc) which were not available within their villages. Their additional
produce such as arecanut, cinnamon and spices were purchased from their
doorsteps by traders from the towns.
The life of the village was centred with the temple, kovil, or the
mosque, they were religious and observed their religious observances
with much devotion. The Maha Hamuduruwo (the Chief Monk) in the Temple,
the Kurukkal in the Kovil and the Hazrath in the Mosques made them
virtuous, the indigenous medical practitioner and the village teacher
disciplined their life. (In the South most of the time the Maha
Hamuduruwo himself played the additional roles of being teacher and
medical practitioner, as many temples were well known centres of
Ayurvedic treatment). The life was very much peaceful and the people
were not possessive but magnanimous. Everyone in the village assisted
and participated at times of a birth or a death in the village
considering the occasion as one of their own.
Collapse
A dent in this peaceful life pattern started to occur with the advent
of Portuguese who wanted to establish a place for their religion in the
country and wanted to create a community loyal to them by converting
people to their religion. Due to their occupation of maritime areas and
deploying the people under their rule in vocations that served their
interests the self-reliant society that existed started to erode in the
maritime areas. The subsequent European invaders, the Dutch and the
Britishers too followed the Portuguese and particularly the Britishers
destroyed the self-reliant economy and made the people not only
dependent on them and serving their interests but gradually even changed
their attitudes and outlook. Destruction of Uva Wellassa, an area where
there were 100,000 paddy fields with all fruit bearing trees,
domesticated animals and a gendercide carried out in an unprecedented
blood bath in the country was one such instance. Thus Sri Lanka
ultimately became a dependent economy.
Sri Lanka has a fertile soil, sufficient water resources and a mass
of industrious people. These precious wealth need not make Sri Lanka a
nation dependent on ship to mouth. The Divi Neguma programme launched by
President Mahinda Rajapaksa on March 12, 2011 is a very ambitious
programme to bring back the past glory and re-establish the self-reliant
society. Under this programme it is envisaged to establish one million
domestic economic units throughout the country.
There is a misconception that this programme is purely dedicated to
cultivate home gardens with vegetables. Cultivation of vegetables is
only a part of the programme.
The objective of the programme is to strengthen the people
economically and nutritiously through optimum usage of land availability
and other resources.
The programme will strengthen agriculture, fishery, livestock
development, milk production, cultivation of additional food crops,
self-employment, export agricultural crops, home gardening and other
economic oriented activities.
Mahinda Chinthana policy
It is being launched isalndwide in keeping with the objective of the
Mahinda Chinthana to develop the family, to lead to the development of
the village and thereby to develop the country.
It is a joint programme implemented in coordination with the
Ministries of Agriculture, Agrarian Services, Lands and Mahaweli,
Livestock Development, Minor Export, Environment, Traditional Industries
and Enterprise Development, Fisheries and Aquatic Resources and Science
and Technology and overseen by the Ministry of Economic Development.
The task of coordinating this programme at grass roots level is being
carried out by the Samurdhi Officers, Agricultural Service Officers,
Grama Niladharis, Family Health Officers under the supervision of the
Divisional Secretariat Officer in each district assisted by the relevant
officials of the Ministries serving in each Divisional Secretariat
Division.
One hundred families from each Grama Niladhari Division will be
registered as participants in this project. In certain areas the
registration could even exceed this number and they will be provided
with necessary guidance and assistance.
People of various walks of life, including public servants have
enthusiastically joined the programme in either cultivating their home
gardens or engaging in small-scale industries. This is the first
national development project implemented with the participation of the
majority of the people. It is appropriate to mention at least about the
activities in few districts to highlight the pepole’s enthusiasm in the
project.
In the Hambantota district 57,600 home garden units have been
established representing the 576 Grama Niladhari Divisions in the
district. Over 57,000 domestic economic units have been established in
573 Grama Niladhari Divisions in the Kegalle district. Arrangements have
also been made to distribute 500 coconut saplings each among the 11
Divisional Secretariats in the district and 500 chicks have been
distributed in the Yatiyanthota Grama Niladhari Division.
In the Matara District 1,500 organic fertilizer manufacturing units
have been established, as a part of the district's Divi Neguma
activities. On an average each of these units is capable of producing
1.25 million kilograms of organic fertilizer. Training in this regard
has been provided by the Agricultural Department. Dry leaves, cow dung,
straw, garbage and other waste material are being used for the
production of organic fertilizer in these units. Producers of this
organic fertilizer are earning considerable profit by the sale of packed
fertilizer to home gardeners. There is a great enthusiasm among the
people in the North, especially among those resettled recently, in
participating in this programme with cultivation of onion, vegetables,
grapes and other crops putting into maximum utilization of land
available in the area, and indulging in cottage industries based on
palmyrah. Forty three thousand five hundred families have been earmarked
to be the partners of this programme. Twelve thousand chicks have
already been distributed among some families. Special concessions have
been given to low income families to start micro industry, and measures
have been taken to set up 20,000 green houses to promote vegetables and
fruit cultivations.
Domestic economic units
Eighty nine thousand six hundred domestic economic units have been
established in 19 Divisional Secretariats and 896 Grama Niladhari
divisions in the Galle district. This include around 1,753 model home
gardens and 180 plant nurseries. Over 1,230 pepper plants and around
22,802 coconut plants have been distributed among Balapitiya,
Ambalangoda, Bentota, Karandeniya, Bogapinuwala and Hikkaduwa Divisional
Secretariats. The Galle district fish industry is seeing vast
development, under the project with the introduction of Post Harvest
Technology to the fish industry to encourage dried fish and Maldive fish
producers. Arrangements have been made to build ponds in the Galle
district to develop inland water fish industry in the district. The
Galle district Secretariat has also identified 213 self-employees to
develop their industries such as handicraft and spice productions, and
155 beneficiaries for bee keeping. Equipment such as bee colonies and
boxes have been provided to them.
Over 118,000 domestic economic units have been established in 1,188
Grama Niladhari Divisions in the Kandy district. Vegetable seed
varieties, fruits, flowers and minor export crops have been provided by
the Agriculture Ministry and the Wildlife Department. The Economic
Development Ministry has allocated Rs.10, 000 for each domestic economic
unit in the district. The District Secretariat had distributed 242,000
coconut saplings on the basis of two coconut saplings for each domestic
unit. Families to start poultry projects have also being identified and
10 chicks for each family will be distributed among those families under
the guidance of the Animal Production and Health Department.
As per government officials already 987,416 packages of fertilizer
and seed varieties have been distributed among the people, and it has
been planned to distribute 5,000 calves, 5,000 goats, two million
coconut saplings and 200,000 chicks to the people. For the development
of the fisheries sector, 20,000 nets worth 130 million rupees are to be
distributed. This programme is expected to increase the vegetable and
food production by 25 percent and increase the per capita consumption of
vegetable from the current 134 grams to 175 grams per day. It has been
estimated that through the Divineguma programme the country will be able
to get an annual vegetable production worth Rs, 15,000 million.
As per the Minister of Economic Development Basil Rajapaksa it is
envisaged to establish 1.5 million homegarden units during the
forthcoming Maha Season. He said under the programme seeds fertilizer
have already been distributed to over 1.3 million home-gardens in 110
Grama Niladari divisions throughout the country. Under the arrangement
to plant two million coconut saplings already 260,000 coconut saplings
have been planted. He said that the remaining number of coconut saplings
will be planted during the Maha season.
Cottage industries
The Ministry of Traditional Industries and Small Enterprise
Development under which most cottage industries are covered, is playing
a vital role under this programme. The Ministry in coordination of the
Industrial Development Board coming under its purview is extensively
promoting cottage industries on palmyra based products, kithul based
products and banana fibre based products. The Ministry under the
sponsorship of the UNDP has also launched a programme to establish
cottage industries for production of various items using fibre extracted
from the stems of the Banana trees. The Ministry under the facilitation
of the Indian High Commission has obtained the services of two Indian
experts on production of banana fibre products and arrangements have
been made to provide training to a core group on these productions as
Sri Lanka has over 52,000 hectares of banana cultivation centred in
eight districts. Financial assistance are also being provided for these
industries, as well as other cottage traditional industries such as
pottery, carpentry, metallurgy, jewellery and handicrafts.
Fisheries is another sector that has got a major boost under the Divi
Neguma project. Fisheries cooperatives are being strengthened and people
engaged in the fishery industry are being given financial assistance for
improving their vocations and boat building activities. These facilities
are being provided to inland and marine fishing, and breeding and
development of ornamental fishing. The Ministry of Fisheries has made
plans to extensively develop the Inland Fishery sector under this
programme.
The Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne has had fruitful discussions with
the Fisheries Ministers of Asian Countries who attended the 5th FAO
Asian Summit on Aqua Culture held in Colombo during the end of July, and
he said that Vietnam which has an extensive Inland Fishery Industry, has
agreed to develop our Inland Fishery Industry within a short period of
time. It is expected that with the help of this programme per capita
fish consumption by the people could be increased and malnutrition
existing in certain areas could be totally eliminated while economically
strengthening the life standards of several thousand people by
generating employment opportunities to several thousands.
Self-employed persons
The Divi Neguma Programme has also encompassed the self-employed
persons in many fields. Already several hundred Demo-Batta trucks have
been distributed in coordination with the Bank of Ceylon and People's
Bank for the self-employed persons in the Colombo and Gampaha Districts,
under easy payment terms.
These self employed persons are now engaged in selling fish,
vegetables, bakery products, essential food items and other household
items from door to door in many areas thereby strengthening themselves
economically and facilitating the households to get things required by
them at their doorsills without wasting their time and energy going in
search of these products to various market places.
The programme will also immensely contribute to the Tourist Centre.
It would held provide the growing requirement of fruits, vegetable,
poultry products etc by the hotels and tourist restaurants.
In addition to this the local handicraft and artifacts that will be
encouraged and assisted by the Divineguma programme will become products
of tourist attraction and the tourist industry will provide a great
boost to our craftsmen.
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