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Revamping plantation crops - research and development to meet challenges

by Dr. N. Yogaratnam, Consultant / National Institute of Plantation Management

Ever since the tea, coconut and rubber research institutions were established in 1925, 1929 and 1930 respectively, research and development efforts in Sri Lanka have centred around them.

Throughout this period, these institutions have been in the forefront of international research, their findings being uniformly available to all sections of producers and providing considerable economic benefits to the industry in the country.



Rubber plantations - a vital factor in economy

It has been said in the past that these institutes' record of service is so good that they are often taken for granted. Nevertheless, the plantation sector in general, has been undergoing difficult periods in this long and chequered history. So have the research institutes, faced now with the daunting task of maintaining its traditional glory and rendering the much needed assistance to overcome the industry's current problems and to meet its long-term goals.

Plantation agriculture has assumed renewed importance since the privatisation of the plantations, a process that began in 1992 and accelerated in 1995. The impact of private management on the plantation industry brought back plantation agriculture to the forefront of the economy.

The revitalised plantation industry looks for new opportunities for enhancing productivity.

Adoption of improved technologies, crop diversification, diversifying agriculture exports away from traditional bulk and raw forms into higher value addition, enabling better prices for the products and enhancing profit margins for producers, are some priority areas.

The management companies always look for new options for improving the viability of the estate sector. Employment of R and D Managers, consultant scientists and adoption of imported technologies have been in practice, all of which puts the traditional research system under pressure. The public sector research should therefore be made compatible with a private sector industry, as it used to be during the period the estates were managed by Agency Houses prior to nationalisation.

It is only to be expected that, in the emerging scenario, not only will there be a closer scrutiny of research recommendations in terms of their cost-effectiveness, but also an element of competitiveness for the institute which could even threaten their monopolistic role in research.

In any event, the changed situation will call for a greater degree of counselling on industry affairs by the institutes to the Government. Nevertheless, as nodal agencies charged with statutory responsibility for research and development in the plantation sector, the research institutes should gear themselves to effectively meet the needs of a vibrant and increasingly demanding industry.

One of the limitations of the present system is that the researcher himself or herself plan and implement their research programmes. This may not always help in problem identification or be user-oriented. Furthermore, their reliability and progress are never evaluated in a systematic manner.

Another major limitation is that the researcher himself or herself provide guidelines and recommendations based on their own research programmes in an ad-hoc manner to gain individual recognition.

Some of them very often fail to understand the basis on which the existing recommendations have been made. Even very minor variations in the existing recommendation is referred to as new technologies and recommendations, thus leaving room for non-acceptance of even firm and reliable guidelines and recommendations by the stakeholders.

Therefore, in planning, target-setting, evaluation and providing guidelines and recommendations competent and experienced outside scientists and senior industry representatives including smallholder representatives should also be involved and this exercise should be done twice a year. This will serve as a useful input to individual scientist/departments and for integrating the organisations perceptions with those of the outside scientific community and the end-user.

With a view to devoting undivided attention on their prime research activities, an emergency trend within several other organisations is to contract out supplementary areas of work to specialised agencies or individuals who are more suited to carry them out. The advantages of this system are well-known and apart from anything else, it helps to keep the organisation within manageable proportions and yet take on added responsibilities. This system works very effectively in many countries.

Research management

Drawing up research plans is one thing but giving effect to them is quite another. Their speedy and effective implementation invariably calls for some adjustments in the functioning of the organisations, some of which involve policy formulations while others require internal handing to cope with the revised priorities.

With privatised management of plantations, the question that arises is whether such a measure is required to research as well. If a total privatisation is contemplated, it could be counterproductive and will not cater to the needs of the smallholder and therefore will not achieve the desired results.

A limited privatisation by giving the Boards of Managements appointed by the minister more autonomy and subjecting to only such minimal control as are necessary by the Government in the changed situation would assure a return on research investment consistent with the needs of the producer and also would ensure a check on the operations of the organisations both by the government and the industry.

Among the thrust research areas in crop production that should be put into operation over the medium and long-term, the foremost challenges before the scientists is the development of planting materials that should have all the positive attributes in addition to sustaining a level of productivity which is in close approximation to the maximum yield potential from a theoretical perspective.

This is reported to be about 20,000 kg/ha for tea, 10,000 kg/ha for rubber and over 25,000 kg/ha for coconut. Production of genetically engineered plants with improved technological properties should be a reality in the near future. Any breakthrough, if at all possible, is more likely to come from the breeders. Adoption of the techniques of modern biotechnology to complement conventional breeding will accelerate this process.

Integrated soil, moisture and plant nutrient management system, pests and disease management strategies involving integrated control programmes, harvesting systems which give a high yield per unit labour and mechanization without loss in crop are of economic importance and should be given high priority. In developing processing technologies, the need for giving due weightage to value addition and environmental aspects in research programmes and recommendations can hardly be overemphasized.

Human resources management

The foremost asset of the research institutes is their pool of scientists and it is their collective effort that makes or breaks its reputation. All the researchers are expected to be well qualified, assisted in no small measure by the management. It costs about Rs. 3.0 million for every overseas doctoral reputation, besides 3-4 years of the researcher's valuable time away from work.

The laboratory and equipment are also in good order to render an output commensurate with the needs of the industry. Yet, it is well known that the full potential of the scientists remains unutilized in the absence of participatory approach to fulfil the overall objectives of the Institutes.

Aspects that would bring the scientists to the practical requirement of the growers should be considered. While the scope for academic pursuits is only to be encouraged, an area that is relatively lacking is the opportunity accorded to young scientists to visit other relevant crop producing countries and obtain first-hand information of situations elsewhere. Such interaction with scientists in the respective disciplines deserves a special place on the training agenda.

A longstanding feature at the research institutes has been for researchers to apportion a reasonable balance between the time spent in the field and the laboratory. The feedback is the scientists are seen less in the field, a trend that requires to be corrected to prevent an unduly academic orientation creeping into the research programmes and projects. The importance of senior scientific staff personally monitoring the experiments, in particular the field investigation, requires to be reiterated to truly reflect the accuracy of the findings.

Since Research Assistants form future research leaders, it would be only appropriate if their initial training at the Institute was to be preceded or followed by a short in-house tenure at one of the plantations managed by the regional plantation companies. Apart from negating any academic bias that could otherwise have permeated the introductory phase of their career, an early interaction with the industry will have a lasting impression of their ability to view research programmes in wider perspective.

A combination of working in a mono-crop and in remote areas, puts the scientists out of reach with their counterparts engaged in general agriculture. To some extent, one of the ways of dealing with this situation could be to organize a forum of plantation crop research scientists.

Such an informal arrangement is operated in some of the other plantation economies where the assembly meets for a two-day session every alternate year on a predetermined agenda. This has been found to be useful for an across the board interaction and could be extended to Sri Lanka.

Adaptive Research

As noted earlier, it should be the function of the Extension using of the research institutes to undertake adaptive research trials especially suited for smallholdings.

This should be followed by appropriate extension techniques and a process of interaction with the relevant smallholder institutions such as TSHDA, RDD, CCB etc. not only to ensure their adoption by smallholder but also to obtain a feed back from them on the appropriateness and changing needs, including aspects such as specifically selected planting material, integrated soil and plant nutrient management pests and disease control programmes, integrated farming, systems harvesting systems and standards etc. Presently, this is done on an adhoc basis but the arrangement needs to be institutionalized.

In conclusion, based on the emerging needs of the plantation industry, improvements to the conventional style of research application, identifying and assigning priorities for long-term plans have been suggested and appropriate organizational changes to ensure their effective implementation have also been proposed with the singular purpose of enhancing the usefulness of the research findings to the industry.

It serves both the estate and the smallholder sectors, which in turn will support these institutions.

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