Developing alternative uses for crops

The Kalpitiya peninsula had a reputation as an arid desert. Recently, however, it has proved to be an excellent area for cultivation of export crops such as gherkins, using water pumped up from aquifers. The seas around contain some of the richest marine life of the South Asian waters, and have historically provided fishermen with bounteous harvests of crabs, oysters, prawns and fish.

The land is dry, but the seashore abounds with mangroves and other plants capable of existing in a saline environment.

The donkeys who wander around the area feast on shrubs of a plant which grows on the saline fringes between water and land, known as ‘Omari Keera’ (Tamil ‘Umari Keerai') - Salicornia brachiata.

Salicornia brachiata is sold as a health food in the West where, along with asparagus, it is considered a delicacy and where it is known as samphire (as well as Dutch spinach and sea asparagus). The BBC website lists the following (main course) recipes for preparing the viand, as well as several starts and side dishes:

*Roasted loin of rabbit with langoustine (pokirisso) and lardo (pig fat), potato nests, asparagus and samphire

*Torbay sole, mussels, leeks, samphire and monk's beard [leaves of salsola soda plant
* Vodka prawns with samphire
*Langoustine and samphire stir fry
*Warm salad of samphire, asparagus and crab

Salicornia brachiata seeds are a source of edible oil, while the protein-rich pulp left after extraction makes for good animal feed. However, it is rarely used in this country and hardly ever cultivated. Omari Keera is occasionally used for mellums - cooked salads. Generally it is left to go to waste - except by the Putlam Burros.

Kalpitiya lagoon

There are also several other varieties of edible halophyte (salt-loving) plants which co-exist with mangroves, which are rarely used. Residual nutrients in sea water are generally sufficient to provide nourishment for all these plants, so they can be grown without addition of fertiliser.

Other plants which grow wild in the arid, saline soil of Kalpitiya are the tamarind tree (Tamarindus indica) and the Ceylon date palm (Phoenix pusilla). One of the natural strengths shared by the tamarind and the date palm are their resistance to salinity. They provide useful alternatives to casuarinas in tsunami protection.

Edible plant varieties

What the above goes to show is how, in one seemingly bare corner of our lush island, there exist in the natural state plants that could usefully be raised in an ecologically friendly manner. Unfortunately, no concerted effort seems to have been made to bring such crops to the notice of potential growers or consumers.

The cultivation of the ayurvedic plant hathavariya (Asparagus racemosus) provides a model. Asparagus is in short supply in the northern hemisphere during its winter and has to be shipped from the southern; and vice versa. Hathavariya, which is a wild version of asparagus, is grown here and exported as an alternative which grows the year-round.

There is a huge market for organic health food in the West and in Japan. People are much more aware of the damage to health caused by organic pollutants and are always on the lookout for cancer-preventing oxidisers. Most Sri Lankan edible plant varieties fill this category.

Another ayurvedic plant which is still going to waste is iramusu or Indian sarsaparilla (Hemidesmus indicus). It is used in India in the manufacture of root beer instead of sarsaparilla (Smilax regelii) or sweet sarsaparilla (Smilax glyciphylla). It is reported that there is a shortage in India, but there is no organized large-scale cultivation in Sri Lanka.

Other ingredients of root beer are allspice, clove, cinnamon, fenugreek (uluhal), ginger, mint and nutmeg - the foam being provided by manioc - which occur in Sri Lanka. Liquorice, which is also used, does not grow here, but we may have a substitute in Walmi (Phaseolus adenanthus), yet another ayurvedic plant which could be raised on a large scale. The Palmyrah Development Board has shown that the palmyrah sub-sector has the potential of generating sales of over US$ 30 million. Apart from the traditional toddy and jiggery, a variety of potential products have been demonstrated, including pectin, which is used in making jams and marmalades, and toothpaste.

Indigenous plant products

Similar research is required to find new uses for our other plant varieties, which may not exist in literature. For example, the use of Veralu (Ceylon olive - Elaeocarpus serratus) and Kottamba (Indian almond - Terminalia catappa) for replacing the Mediterranean olive and almond industrially has not been looked into.

There are alternative uses for many of the plants which grow on this island, both in the wild state and as cultivations. We have a large body of literature on all the plant varieties which grow here, both in English and in the vernacular. What is necessary is for this to be brought together. The compartmentalisation of our modern education often means that there is often little cross-fertilisation between different fields. Hence the opportunities for lateral thinking are circumscribed. This was not so in earlier times, as a quick look through the membership of the Sri Lanka Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society would show!

We have a large body of unemployed and under-employed graduates with degrees, for example in Pali, Sinhala or Tamil literature, who could usefully be deployed to the task of collating the information and correlating data on plant type and end use. Inter-disciplinary courses could be set up for them by the universities, bringing together the now diverse fields of literature, ayurveda, agriculture, botany and manufacture. Our oldest exports were indigenous plant products: cinnamon, pepper, betel and arecanut, supplemented later by Cloves (from Malukku) and Nutmeg (from Banda). Subsequently these ‘non-traditional’ exports were replaced by the ‘traditional’ export crops, tea and rubber. Now it is time once more to turn to the ‘non-traditional’ crop sector.