Farming community needs respect, courtesy of choice and appropriate rewards

Hopefully the heavy rains will cool the passions which have recently polarised Sri Lankan society and it would be appropriate to now leave behind all the politics and settle down as a nation to offer community its best chance.

Through the years the nation's farming community have always delivered come what may. They have kept the nation fed through very bad times and have adjusted to the free market forces admirably. The Sri Lankan farmer is probably one of the world's least subsidised and we could be proud of them.

When chemical fertiliser has been steadily increasing in price they have drawn on their traditional wisdom of utilising on farm resources to compliment less and less chemical fertiliser application.

They have taken on the technology revolution in style going for second hand machinery from countries like Japan and cost effective machines from China, India and Thailand. Energy and water utilisation has improved leaps and bounds and yields have gone up due to the use of high breed seeds and positive inputs from the Private sector input suppliers.

The country's Agri-Business community specialised in input supply Large, Medium and Small have also played a vital role to sustain rural agriculture. Offering numerous services may it be products or services, the private sector has also made inroads into extension services.

Recently economic advisor to President Mahinda Rajapakse Nivaard Cabraal referring to the slide of the stock market has made a statement about the economic fundamentals being in place. We wish to inform Cabraal that where the nations Agri-Business is concerned the Fundamentals and Policy is definitely not in place. Subsidising the consumer with cheap food while feeding subsidised chemical fertiliser to our farmers has been the winning tag line even according to the Mahinda Chinthanaya. Whatever one may say, our agri-produce is mostly taxed indirectly.

As a tax paying citizen of this country, the farmer deserves more respect. When he switches on electricity he pays tax when he uses his phone, he pays tax and when he does almost anything of his daily chores such as brushing his teeth, bathing or having a cup of tea he is taxed.

In fact when his hard-earned money gives him the opportunity to feed his family with chicken he pays Rs. 28 of tax for every kilogramme.

Our neighbouring countries such as Maldives (2 Million +), Thailand (12 Million +), Malaysia (8 Million +) and little Singapore (7 Million +) have been able to attract high end consumers as tourists to their countries annually creating bountiful and rewarding markets for their farming community.

These tourists also act as emissaries for their food cultures and carry the comparativeness of local foods far and wide creating export markets. Governments in these countries have followed these trends and "Thai Kitchen of the World" is one of the most successful national brand tags which has driven demand for the countries agri-foods sector and built up a formidable brand platform for their SME's to perform on.

Just imagine if we could attract two million tourists to this country increasing annual food consumption by 10% at the top end of the market. In our opinion farm incomes will rise by 15%, 200,000 new jobs in Agri- Business will be created and probably a 20% jump in exports of Sri Lankan ethnic foods.

All stake holders in national agri-business need to sit down and talk. The politicians, public servants, the private sector and the rural community are the key players and have some connectivity through the National Agri-business Council who would be most willing to facilitate this process.

We need to come up on the short-term with something, which could build the trust among the parties. The farmer should not be seduced with short-term handouts but rewarded with wider market access, better infrastructure and better prices, letting them have the courtesy of choice of being short-sighted and using premiums on chemical fertiliser or on consumer friendly production driving better sustainability.

Subsidies paid on fertiliser imports will also kill enterprise and the private sector who is the main importer would be more than happy to indirectly benefit and not bother to fully utilise their resources to innovate.

Being a small compact island Agri-Economy, the country has the potential of becoming one of the world's preferred food suppliers to the well informed, demanding and affluent upper end global consumer.

While FDI's has been the most preferred by consecutive governments we do have an aging middle class who may be happy to invest some of their savings in return of a relaxed lifestyle in a wonderful rural setting and would probably be delighted to be contributing to the national effort provided the correct environment is created. For all this to happen we need sustainable peace and not a fragile ceasefire in place.

Mario de Alwis, Chairman national Agri-Business Council (NAC)