Plantation sector calls for funds to develop infrastructure

'Castro seed oil is said to be one of the main ingredients of bio-diesel. In India a serious study on bio-diesel is being carried out and results have been encouraging. We could consider exploring the possibilities of growing this crop in our marginal and uneconomic tea and rubber lands or as an intercrop,' President of the Ceylon Planters' Association (CPA) Lal Basnayake said.

'The plantation industry is the largest single employer in this country employing nearly one and a half million people directly and indirectly. It is still the largest net foreign exchange earner for the country,' Basnayake said at its AGM held recently.

'The plantation sector needs large infusion of cheap long-term funds for development such as replanting, factory development and infrastructure development. The plantation companies need to be relieved of the high cost short-term borrowings which are suffocating them. Extension of the lease period from fifty to ninety- nine years to improve investment climate is important,' he said.

Every year three percent of hectares should be replanted in any estate to gain healthy harvest. At present not even 0.3% hectares are replanted. We proposed that the Government should grant immediate relief in the form of development funds for this purpose. It costs over Rs. one million rupees to replant a hectare, he said.

Despite wage increases, escalation of cost on inputs, competition from other counterparts, rubber and coconut industries continue to show good results. We welcome the decision made by the government to extend the replanting subsidy scheme to the plantations and the extension of funds for rubber factory development, Basanayake said.

Natural rubber has its dominant place in the world trade yet the constraint here is the decline of skilled tappers, which had to be combated as the decline has its adverse effect on the harvest. The coconut industry is threatened with reduction in the area under production as a result of fragmentation of lands for other purposes.

The contributions made by planters in managing plantations and maintaining them as the backbone of the nation's economy for well over one and a half centuries cannot be under estimated or overlooked by anyone.

The job must be made attractive. Social standards also must be improved to be in par with those in other sectors.

Training on modern day technologies and other scientific matters that relates to plantation industry has to be accelerated to provide skill development to employees to improve their performance, he said. Till 2005 nearly 71 planters left the sector said guest speaker D. Seevaratnam.

Fifty-two percent of planters who left the sector were between 26 and 40. Plantation management companies would have to recognise and respect the changing dynamics of the availability and retention of good quality planters, he said.

He stressed the need to focus on talent leadership, innovation and demonstrate potential for growth in companies. (AS)