Prelude to Development

Nimal SHANTHA LOKUPATHIRAGE

Rice is a staple food for over half of the world’s population (FAO, 2004). Rice accounts for over 20 percent of global calorie intake. Over 90 percent of the world’s rice is produced and consumed in the Asian region by 6 countries (China, India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Japan) comprising 80 percent of the world’s production and consumption.

Since rice is the staple food of Sri Lanka, gist of this note is to articulate the prominence of agricultural sector gleaned in any development strategy of Sri Lanka.

Consequent to the forming of a new Government under President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka is presently experiencing a spasm to accelerate the development process, since governments, formed after gaining independence, have failed miserably to bring about a significant development in Sri Lanka and enhance the living conditions of fellow countrymen.

In the aftermath of the defeat of LTTE, the very fact that hindered the development efforts has culminated a greater brunt over the present Government to build up the country into a highly developed State and make the poorest of this country to enjoy the fruit of development.

The Government is entrusted with this task to reach the target development, as the entire nation is gripped with high expectations.

With the numerous obstacles to triumph over and the prodigy of handling the envisaged problems would prove the strength of the Government, its Ministers, administrative machinery and other stakeholders.

In view of the Mahinda Chintanaya manifesto, the Government has envisaged to develop Sri Lanka as a dynamic global hub. That envisages the objectives of a massive leap forward to transform Sri Lanka into a strategically important economic centre of the world and to transform Sri Lanka to be the Pearl of the Asian Silk Route once again, in modern terms, using the strategic geographical location effectively and develop Sri Lanka as a naval, aviation, commercial, energy and knowledge hub, serving as a key link between the East and West.

Even though Sri Lanka achieved the highest echelons in these economic centres, no country would survive without a proper agricultural strategy, either making food within or imported as a last resort, where no natural infrastructure facilities are available, like in Singapore for agriculture development.

Sri Lanka is blessed with necessary infrastructure facilities and it is a matter of synergizing these resources into a result oriented formulae.

Food is a vital component in the development strategy of a country which is tantamount to the food security, political stability, foreign reserve account, in terms of food imports and so on.

It is the buoyant fact that the Government should feed the countrymen at any cost whether food are grown within or imported. But no Government would resort to feed people with imported food, knowing the impeccable consequences in the macro-economic scenario.

Although Sri Lanka is endowed with an abundance of natural resources, only recently it achieved the status of self-sufficiency in rice production which is also not a consistent factor. Various reasons for non consistence could be cited, among which are bad planning or no planning at all, politicization, lack of policy formulation, bureaucracy, failed irrigations system, extrinsic cultivation systems infested with crop diseases and manure based seed varieties, unpredictable weather patterns are a few.

What strategists should strive to accomplish is to, encompass the available resources with the indigenous methodology passed down for generations, into an integrated system mingled with the carefully selected modern technology which suits the local farming system adapted to natural environment infrastructure and streamline the entire network into a plausible strategy.

For the sake of the modernizations of agriculture and irrigation sector, we have adapted the western oriented systems and policies, sacrificing the local wisdom and indigenous know-how. For instance, there was a cascading system in the ancient Rajarata (North Central Province) in which there were interconnected irrigation systems covering 3,472 tanks which are called upper tanks (Ihala weve), strainer tanks (perahan weve), sprawling tanks (Yaya weve), fortified tanks (kotu wewe) and great tanks (maha weve) in order of cascading and it is heartening to note that most of the tanks inclusive of this viable system of irrigation has been destroyed by the so called international experts under the cover of gigantic Mahaweli development scheme.

Agriculture should be the first stem of the development process which is only a natural phenomenon in our country as against the industrialization policies conceptualized by some planners and politicians in the bygone era. The tide has now turned towards the service sector, no doubt the modern techno-phenomenon in any emerging economy, vis-a-vis agriculture which is a sine quo none for the mere fact no country would survive without food. Sri Lanka is an agriculture based country where more than 60 percent of the population is dependent on agriculture. Japan is a classic example of the undaunted agricultural policies, although Japan is a highly industrialized state.

Sri Lanka is blessed with following natural gifted and historically endowed facilities for self-sufficiency, in agriculture, to name a few.

* Conducive weather patterns for agriculture

* Monsoon rain falls

* Naturally gifted 103 rivers, cascading down from the middle of the country

* Thousands of naturally gifted streams, water courses, waterways, brooks, canals, tributaries etc.

* More than 20,000 big and small irrigation tanks built by our forefathers

* Integrated canal system built by our forefathers, including the tank cascading system. A cascade is a chain of tanks connected by water, flows from one to another, located in the downstream.

* Indigenous agricultural system coupled with insecticidal and pesticidal method.

In spite of all these, we are annually spending a colossal some of hard earned foreign exchange for the import of food items at times, because authorities have not formulated a comprehensive agricultural policy or a food security system.

The calamity of the agriculture sector in the economy and shortage of food items could be attributed to factors such as private sector dominance, illegal hoarding, government’s failure to adopt a food security system, breakdown in collection of food items, appalling packaging and transport system, non-standard and unconformable storage facilities, highly corrupted and discouraging government purchasing procedure, absence of the mechanism for the farmers to sell their produce, artificial shortages, inconsistent import pattern, bureaucracy etc.

According to the records, we have imported consumer goods worth US $ 1,240.7 in 2009 of which majority have been spent on imports of rice and wheat which was increased sharply during this period.

This gigantic paddy production in the Maha season was primarily supported by the heavy rainfall led saturated effective storage of almost all major tanks in the country so much so that, more than 1/3 of the country’s major tanks were spilt, in the better part of 2008. On the contrary, third quarter of 2009, the significant rainfall drop has caused to lower the effective storage capacities of nearly half of the major tanks in the country. Paddy cultivation is retarded due to drought when seasonal raining pattern varies and scarcity of irrigated water during the Yala season.

It has been revealed that Mahaweli reservoirs have failed to provide water for paddy cultivation to the North and North Central Province during the Yala season.

The productions of major paddy cultivation districts such as Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Ampara, and Kurunegala were badly affected due to drought condition that prevailed in this season.

In Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa districts paddy production for Yala alone has decreased by 64.8 percent and 35.2 percent while Ampara district and Mahaweli ‘H’ zone have shown decreases of 23.9 percent and 23.7 percent.

Total sown land extent also decreased by 27.3 percent for the season. The extent of major irrigated paddy lands decreased by 30.0 percent in this Yala season. (Central Bank 2009 third quarter report).

What transpires from the foregone description is that we have miserably failed to storage water, when available in abundance, for the usage of the dry season of the country. In order to overcome this depressing situation Government should immediately resort to restore the dilapidated irrigation tanks on a priority basis.

Sri Lanka should evolve a national agricultural policy which should be broad based to encompass the entire related segments in agriculture and transformed into an integrated and a comprehensive scheme intrinsically based on indigenous arrangements with a local wisdom rather than imported ideals. For instance Sri Lanka is a classic example of the 'hydraulic civilization' which had developed in the ancient period. This notion should, definitely, not negate the modern developments in technology and ideology which could be adapted to suit the local requirements and environment.

Problem areas which hinder the focused objectives should be identified and addressed on a priority basis.

The following problems should be immediately addressed to:

* Restore the tanks and develop the cascading system

* Increase the volume of arable land

* Reinforce the paddy marketing system

* Identify the farming problems

* Enhanced short-term credit system

* Increase the usage of organic manure

* Increase the awareness and usage of locally proven insecticides and other chemicals

* Usage of indigenous paddy varieties which are impervious to diseases

* Develop strong farmer organizations, based on relevant water resources (tanks)

* Develop strong farmer organizations, based on marketing their produce

* Establishment of seeds and planting materials development centres

* Development of organized farms

* Synergies the entire agricultural marketing system and develop a monitoring system

* Establish a mechanism for timely intervention of the Government to check the food shortages, artificial price increases, food import etc.

* Establish and maintain a comprehensive food security system

* Develop a network of interactive regional storage facilities (cold storage if necessary) where shortage and excess could be monitored with view to take corrective measures.

* Develop a network of interactive information and communication facility (a computer generated system) to monitor the storage, marketing and other segments of the agriculture.

Findings of experiences from the past, constrains in the present, could be jointly used in making an appropriate framework for the sustainable water resources development planning for the dry zone Sri Lanka, specially the Yala season. Although paddy production has been increased yearly on, primarily based on Government subsidies we have experienced a downfall of 3,875 mt in 2006 to 3,652 mt in 2007 and have imported rice 84 and 52 mt respectively.

This can be attributed to the many of the facts cited above. Unless a pragmatic approach and a tremendous shift in the policy formulation inclusive of the restoration of tanks on a priority basis, this could be a nagging problem in the agricultural sector. It could be further emphasized that action should be taken to implement the required institutional and regulatory measures to gear the agricultural economy.

Also it is noted that the Government is determined to develop the agriculture sector in the North and the East of the country, which is a laudable effort since these areas have been neglected for decades and it should be the prime concern of the Government to enhance the living condition of those people.

The Government has taken measures to reconstruct and renovate the irrigation system in the Northern Province on the directive of the Northern Task Force. Construction works are afoot allocating Rs. 138 million for all irrigation projects in the Jaffna district, under the Uthuru Vasanthaya development program.

The Government inaugurated a massive agricultural project in the Jaffna peninsula for the cultivation of 450 hectares of paddy land, under the Uthuru Vasanthaya Northern development program. The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) will provide significant assistance to enhance food security, nutrition and farming activities in the East.

This follows the FAO approving the 'Enhancing Food Security and Nutrition among the farming families in the Eastern Sri Lanka' project funded by a donation of European Commission, for the value of Euro 5,127,252 (US $ 7.3 million). This project will directly assist 20,000 farming families, enabling them to restart the production of rice, other field crops, vegetables, fruits and poultry. The projects objective is to restore and enhance agricultural production to ensure food security of the region and improve nutrition for the returning or recently resettled farming community in the Trincomalee and Batticaloa districts.

In the meantime the Government has taken action to launch a massive agricultural development program in Kurunegala, under the organization of the Lands, Agriculture and Irrigation, Animal Husbandry and Livestock Development Provincial Ministry. This program covering 121 Grama Niladari Divisions, under the purview of the regional Pradeshiya Sabhas will be completed within three years (2009-2012) at an estimated cost of Rs. 35.1 million. The project area covers about 30,000 families in Kurunegala, covering over 80 percent of the population who derive their income through agriculture. The project envisages improving the marketing facilities for agriculture produce of over 30,000 farming families by constructing six bridges to facilitate farmers to transport their produce to the main markets and sell them at competitive prices, and also assist buyers to visit these villages, to purchase produce at competitive prices.

All these efforts would be futile unless a concrete effort is made to evolve a national agricultural policy with firmly organized machinery and institutions to implement the policies of the Government as shown above.

Though the Government was importing fertilizer at $ 340 per tonne, it was supplying the same to farmers only at $ 110 a tonne. With the two government companies having 32 percent market share, farmers did not have any difficulty in getting fertilizers in time.

Then on the international agricultural scenario Thailand announced on April 30, 2008, the project of the creation of the Organization of Rice Exporting Countries (OREC) with the potential to develop into a price-fixing cartel for rice a factor that should be taken into consideration in our agricultural policies. And also there are other imperative factors which influence the agriculture policies in Sri Lanka, among which the population increase, locally and internationally, ever increasing rice consumption, nagging environmental concerns are vital.

The Asian population is growing at 1.8 percent per year at present. Growth in population in this region means an increase in the demand for rice.

The Asian region, where more than 61 percent of the world's population lives, adds 45 million more rice consumers annually. Despite the problems of soil salinity, high cost of development, water scarcity, alternative and competing uses of water, and environmental concerns, history has shown that world rice sufficiency just enough to meet the demand. Thus, even for the future, increase of productivity on a time scale will be an obligatory requirement.

All these factors would influence Sri Lanka, if the authorities failed to implement an agricultural development program and make Sri Lanka self-sustained sans import of food items.