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| Friday, 25 July 2003 |
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The great 'bumper harvest' bubble by Afreeha Jawad Saddled with a farming community of 40% and a disgruntled one at that, Sri Lanka prepares to face yet another bug bear, not enough all that she goes through in a chaotic socio/political arena. These problems - certainly not an overnight build up but an outcome of successive governments' improper management policies. Many farm hands this writer met on the threshing floor with faces - all rather wry scoffed at the idea of a 'bumper harvest'. It was heart-rending to hear what they had to say about the stacks of paddy surrounding them. One look at those huge stacks would make any outsider feel that all is sunshine for these folk. Certainly not - the big, fat Mudalali was there to collect the mortgaged crop. The women waited impatiently for him to leave and on seeing his truck take off walked up to me and said; "There's nothing here to call our own. It's all his". They informed me of how from ploughing to harvesting - He was the fall back state. At every stage of cultivation it was he who played 'Good Samaritan'. From providing seed paddy to insecticides, weedicides and fertilizer - all of which were placed at the farmers' disposal for the final wrap - the loaned monies - all set against the bountiful harvest. Notwithstanding all this, farming women are driven to free labour in the Mudalali's home - the refusal of which will place dire consequences on them with the "no assistance next season", threat looming like the proverbial Damocles' Sword. None in the village dare resist him; - "Maraneta, Magulata Eya Thamai". - "Come funeral or wedding he is our only hope". When asked what they felt of government's intervention in crop purchasing, they only laughed. They thought it absolutely stupid to stick to high quality and super grades in a country where weather patterns are inconsistent which affect plant growth. One may wonder why then the Mudalali places little or no belief in quality grading. If one is familiar with what's going on in the country's agricultural sector, it is not surprising to find rice mills at a distance of every two miles - perhaps even less. Every Mudalali is now a mill owner. This writer is personally aware of how some of them even invested their wives' Middle East earnings in rice mills. They are doing remarkably well. One of them I know even sent his daughter to Colombo to study accounting and now she is back home in her village bordering the Vanni - all very ready to take over from her father living in life's sunset years. By the way what happened to the Paddy Marketing Board? That's altogether a pathetic story. However, some years back this writer distinctly remembers how PMB went round distributing gunnies to collect farmer harvests out there is Kurunegala. They did come on the appointed day - their first and final visit. Tightening the screws further on farmers is also the intended water tax. The dog tax in the mid 1850s along with several other taxes were intolerable to the native mind and even led to two major revolts - one of them being the famous Uva-Wellassa rebellion. The need for training in water management is essential but to subject the farming community to a tax on its usage is extended regimentation. It is a fact though distasteful that ordinary, simple rustics out there in the village resent institutionalised, chaired behaviour. Today paddy farmers gain nothing at all by way of profit but they are in production for the sheer love of farming. As one of them watching the rain water gushing past his field once said, "How can I simply stand and watch all that water pass by. I cultivate for the joy of doing so even at a loss. |
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