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| Thursday, 22 July 2004 |
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Coconut growers' 'nutty' tangle Coconut growers' lament continues despite the several media exposures over increasing difficulties on land maintenance. Regrettably many prefer a sizeable fixed deposit than see themselves fixed in their daily travails of estate management. Come plucking time the hassle confronting them goes unmatched as they plough through enormous mental agony in finding pluckers whose services are now best rendered in foreign climes. Those that have come back are now on a well earned rest and look upon plucking with disdain not to forget their offspring whose concern is anything but plucking for its 'low social esteem'. Incidentally, the two types of pluckers available out there - the ones that do the job using bamboo and others who physically scale up the tree - receive discriminatory societal treatment. The bamboo plucking clan - somewhat better off in social stigma - themselves view their colleagues that sprawl up the palm with contempt and if by chance one is the offspring of the sprawling type he is dubbed 'Ara lamaya air force kaarayage puthane'. That a moments suspension on air even though for a hard earned rupee could qualify for ridicule is mind-boggling while the ones that are on system's hold resorting to nefarious activities receive much social acceptance perhaps due to lounge suit, fast cars and 'top connections'. There was, I remember, some years back, an attempt - an unsuccessful one at that - to grant them some sort of official apparel like a uniform for the sake of self-esteem and societal acceptance. That one government's policy is anathema to the other is nothing new in Sri Lankan governance. Not strange then why the 'uniforms for pluckers programme' ended up in smoke. Getting back to the difficulties of finding labour, one way out is to set up a labour pool at every village agrarian centre - which present name I knew not for the umpteen number of times the centre's name was changed under different hue of State management even referred to once as 'Pala daa vardana kamituwa' - whatever the pala daa or fruits it bore. Job mechanisation though heavily promoted is easier said than done due to high costs. The same agrarian centre could even hire out whatever agro implements the area's farming community needs at a nominal fee which certainly would be beneficial to let alone coconut growers, the rest of the farmer fraternity. The Pradeshiya Sabhas' membership that would not fail to turn up at every village hamlet and doorstep come electioneering needs more positive orientation such as frequent visits and interaction with the locality's farmers for knowledge enhancement and problem rectification. What Sri Lanka urgently needs today is not only policy but effective policy implementation and this shall for certain not materialise unless and until the heart is in the matter. |
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