The future of the plantation industry

by Abey Ekanayake

The plantation industry is labour-intensive and will always be dependent on the sustainable use of the available human resources for its continuation and improvement. Traditionally, tea and rubber estates have had to maintain a resident workforce recruited mainly from across the Palk Straits. This became necessary almost at the inception because the indigenous population refused to work under the harsh regimental conditions enforced on the estates by their new owners and managers.

At the instance of the Colonial Office, an investigation conducted by Sir James Emerson Tennent in 1847 suggested that the labour shortage on the newly opened coffee plantations was caused by the harsh treatment meted out to the immigrants by the planters, indeed one government official described conditions on the estates as being as bad as plantation slavery in the West Indies, while another compared it to 'Egyptian bondage'.

Governor Viscount Torrington writing a personal letter to Lord Earl Grey, Secretary of State for the Colonies in August 1848 says, "The mass of the coffee planters, many of them the very worst class of Englishmen has very much tended to lower and degrade our caste and character in the eyes of the natives.

The habits of the planters particularly with the women has been most objectionable and in the eyes of the Kandian, 'a coffee planter' is a term of reproach". [K.M. de Silva The Rebellion of 1848].

No wonder then that the indigenous population refused to work under these despicable conditions and the coffee planters had no other alternative but to recruit workers from elsewhere. In order to justify this action the British spread the 'lazy native' and 'lotus eater' theories, which gained credence during their rule. However, more discerning people like planter - journalist Harry Williams has evaluated the Sinhala culture during that time, more correctly when he wrote, "The Sinhalese peasant is a gentleman with a philosophy of life which he is not willing to barter for material prosperity".

In the latter part of the sixties prior to the impending nationalization of estates most British-controlled Agency Houses were cutting down on capital expenditure drastically and in some cases even on certain revenue items, as they were well aware that the end was near. I remember my P.D., F. H. Keun telling me just prior to his retirement in the early sixties, "I don't give the tea industry another ten years, at most". On hindsight it is obvious that he was merely referring to British interests in the tea estates, and not the industry itself, and he was dead right.

Knowing this trend in the thinking, in the early seventies, Dr. Colvin R de Silva, the then Minister of Plantation Industries, when granting a subsidy payment on fertilizer and packing materials the prices of which had shot up as a result of an oil price revision by OPEC, made it conditional that the quantum of the subsidy should be deducted from profits and not used for the declaration of dividends. Instead, an equal amount to the subsidy granted should be utilized for Factory Development, Replanting, Worker and Staff Housing and certain other stipulated agricultural practices.

By this ruling, he ensured that the estates were maintained in reasonably good condition despite the impending nationalization threat and cost increases as a result of the OPEC oil price revision.

With the nationalization of the estate sector in 1974 and pressure from the trade unions, a Social Development Division was set up in the two state corporations of JEDB and SLSPC at central and regional levels, to support and co-ordinate health and social welfare activities on the estates.

These aspects were indeed in a deplorable state at that time. In addition together with donor-assisted programs steps were taken to improve housing and provide safe drinking water and sanitary facilities on the estates. However, the magnitude of the problem was such that the investments made were inadequate to meet existing needs of the estate community. Nevertheless, these were steps in the right direction.

With the privatization of estates, the Plantation Housing & Social Welfare Trust was set up in 1993, a tripartite agency with the Government, the Estate Management and the Trade Unions participating.

This 'Trust' now referred to as Plantation Human Development Trust, has received the support of the Dutch and Norwegian governments who provide financial and technical assistance. From the inception the 'Trust' has been providing a wide range of assistance to upgrade the quality of life of the estate community.

The most significant of these has been the assistance given through the 'self help' housing scheme, which helps worker families to construct homes. Funds are channeled through Estate Worker Co-operative Societies to which estate workers have to subscribe in order to participate in the scheme. Apart from technical support towards planning and construction, loans up to Rs. 60,000 per unit are given to beneficiaries at low interest rates payable over a 15-year period by deducting installments through the pay sheet.

The estate management contribution is providing the land required, to the co-operative society with the trust giving a grant of a further Rs. 60,000 in installments according to the progress made in construction. There is a similar scheme for upgrading/re-roofing of the existing houses. Besides these, providing safe drinking water, sanitation, constructing and upgrading crSches, dispensaries, maternity wards, staff quarters etc are also receiving attention with assistance from the Plantation Human Development Trust.

As a result of implementing these schemes there has been an appreciable improvement in the health and welfare of the estate community. With the success achieved with the co-operative societies, many enterprising Estate Managers have used the Estate Co-operative Society to provide other facilities like IDD and local telephones, three wheeler taxi services etc to the community.

One gathers from recent company reports that much effort is being made to improve the working and living conditions of the industry's large workforce. There is obviously recognition within the management companies that to improve the productivity and profitability of estates the vital prerequisite is a contented and motivated workforce.

In 1992 there was an excess of workers but at present, from all reports, many estates are facing a shortage. This is mainly because the younger generation, due perhaps to an inherent stigma attached to estate work, are migrating to urban areas in search of alternative sources of employment where the earning power and working conditions are better or perceived as more glamorous.

As mentioned at the inception, the tea and rubber industries are labour intensive and as much as 60 percent of the cost of production is on worker wages. With profitability based on the sale averages received for the finished products, the plantation industry is unable to keep pace with the wage structures applicable in the construction, manufacture and service sectors in the rest of the country unless drastic reductions are made in the management fees and other overhead charges. Consequently, we could anticipate that the problem of labour shortages will only aggravate in the future, unless some remedial action is taken soon.

Meanwhile, we see that the tea small holders who constitute only 45 percent of the cultivated extent are producing over 60 percent of the total tea production. Admittedly, most of the smallholdings are located in the low country with high yielding VP tea but there is no reason why smallholdings in the other districts should not do equally well if proper agricultural practices are adopted.

It occurs to me that the time is not too distant when small holders or Worker Co-operative Societies will supply a large proportion of the raw material requirements of the tea and rubber factories owned and run by the companies. The factory owner companies will then be looking after only the manufacture, packing and marketing of the finished product.

In the late seventies there was much talk about the integration of the estates and the surrounding villages, but very little seems to have been achieved. The isolated plantation environment lacks the social atmosphere of the villages or the urban culture prevailing in the rest of the country.

This social integration and development should be encouraged through sports, employment, trade, and leisure and community activities. By integrating these cultures, it will pave the way to create ethnic and industrial harmony, more job-satisfaction, and offer better scope for career advancement, thus reducing the tendency for out-migration both from the villages and the estates. Unfortunately there appears to be vested interests that seem to prefer keeping the communities separated for their own advantage.