A prosperous abode and a wonderful motherland

A. A. M. Nizam-Information Department

Sri Lanka is one of the blessed nations of the world. This blessed nation strategically located along maritime and aerial routes of Asia is also blessed with an arable soil, mineral resources, exceptional flora and fauna and scenic beauty compact in a land area of 25,332 sq. miles (65,610 sq. km)surrounded by 833 miles (1,340 km) of sea coast. Despite its tiny size the country is also blessed with a wide range of topographic features covering three distinguishable zones by elevation such as the Central Highlands, the plains and the coastal belt. The fertility of Sri Lanka’s soil is nourished by 103 rivers.

Sri Lanka’s ancient kings who enormously loved the motherland harnessed the waters of the rivers and plenty of rainwater the country was getting annually by inventing an irrigation civilization by building tanks and reservoirs throughout the country and made the country self sufficient in food and even produced rice in export quantities. Therefore, the country had a self sufficient economy and did not depend for food from overseas countries.

Mahindana Chinthana

It was with this ancient glory and the grandeur fully embraced in his hearts President Mahinda Rajapaksa said in the Mahinda Chinthana “I wish to have all villages of the country emerging as micro-centres of growth on modern lines, whilst retaining the strengths impressive and features of rural life that had perished over the past few years.”

What the President mentioned in this visionary statement was his dedication to resurrect Sri Lanka’s ancient and glorious life pattern under which the whole country was a network of self-sufficient villages, helping each other and living together as one family, in which majority of the population cultivated their staple food paddy, cultivated vegetables, fruits and reared cows, goats and poultry for their protein requirements, while others helped through other vocations to fulfill the needs of the locality.

Self-sufficiency in food through Divi Neguma programme

A dent in this peaceful and economically self sufficient life pattern started to occur with the advent of Portuguese who wanted to create a community loyal to them by deploying them in vocations that served their interests. The subsequent European invaders, the Dutch and the Britishers too followed the Portuguese objectives and particularly the Britishers destroyed the self-reliant economy and made the people not only dependent on them and serving their interests but gradually even changed their attitudes and outlook. Destruction of Uva Wellassa, an area where there were 100,000 paddy fields with all fruit bearing trees, domesticated animals and a genocide carried out in an unprecedented blood bath in the country was one such instance. Thus Sri Lanka ultimately became a dependent slavish economy.

Divi Neguma programme

When many countries in the world were gripped with shortage of food and grappling with rising costs for food Sri Lanka under the visionary leadership of President Mahinda Rajapaksa made a determined effort to produce our own food requirements by ourselves. Delivering the Budget speech of 2011 he said that “It is necessary to module our country to face a global food crisis that is destined to emerge in the future. We will be able to meet our food requirements through livestock development, poultry farming and cultivation of vegetables and fruits. Cheap carbonic fertilizer could be used for this purpose. Therefore, a National Food Production Drive will be launched through the Department of Agriculture and Samurdhi to develop one million home gardens throughout the country”.

Accordingly on March 12 last year President Mahinda Rajapaksa launched the ‘Divi Neguma’ programme to establish one million domestic economic units to promote domestic agriculture projects to make the households self-sufficient. The President launched the programme from the Matara Army Camp and the Minister of Economic Development Basil Rajapaksa launched the programme from Gampaha.

The objectives of the programme were to guide the families to fulfill their food requirements from their own court yard and to earn a stable monthly income from the excess produce. The Ministry of Economic Development coordinated the project with several other ministries. 100 households from each Grama Niladhari division were selected to be participants in the programme and they were assisted by the Grama Niladhari, the Samurdhi Officer, the Agrarian Services Officer and the Health Services Officer. Other than cultivation of vegetables and fruits families will also selected to implement projects in the fields of fishery, bee keeping, horticulture, and cottage industry.

People, especially those in the villages enthusiastically participated in this programme since it made a saving on their food expenses and brought an additional income by selling the excess produce. The results were perceptible as there was a drastic reduction on vegetable prices throughout the country.

Divi Neguma second stage

With the massive success recorded in its first phase of the programme, the second phase was launched islandwide on October 27 last year. Under this phase 150 families in every Grama Niladhari Division were selected to participate in the programme and they were provided with a packet containing seeds of five vegetable varieties to be grown in their home gardens

Under this phase, in addition to providing seedlings for cultivation of vegetables various other sectors such the fisheries, cottage industry etc., were also covered and the relevant Ministries provided financial assistance, technical know-how and marketing facilities to the participants. Some families were also provided with chicks for engaging in poultry production and the reduction in egg and chicken prices can be attributed to the success of this programme. Also in a special programme under this phase, members of the Self Employed Persons Association were provided with Demo Trucks and Three Wheels on concessionary easy payment basis through financial facilities provided by the Bank of Ceylon and the People’s Bank.

Divi Neguma third stage

All arrangements have been made to launch the third stage of the programme on April 5 under the them of ‘Isurumath Nivahanak - Asirimath Mawbimak’ (A Prosperous Abode - A Wonderful Motherland). Under this stage 2.5 families will be incorporated into the programme. Already the Grama Niladharis, the Samurdhi Officers, the Agrarian Services Officers and the Health Services Officers in each Grama Niladhari Division throughout the country together with the graduates newly recruited by the Ministry of Public Administration and Home Affairs have made house to house visits in enlisting families to be participants in this programme.

Objectives of the third stage

More fallow lands to go under cultivation.

Based on the 2012 budget proposals to make available through domestic units the daily requirements of vegetables, fruits, yams, green vegetables, fish, milk, eggs are provided under the Agriculture, Livestock Development and Fisheries sectors. This is to encourage earning of additional income through self-employment activities within the domestic units, to strengthen food security and nourishment by efficiently and effectively utilizing the land areas surrounding domestic units, and further develop the results that have been achieved through the previous two stages of the programme.

Programmes to be implemented

Under this stage it is envisaged to encourage the people to get their food requirements from their own home gardens, improve bee keeping at homes, animal husbandry, and improve fishery related activities, encourage cultivation of selected vegetable varieties, fruits and cut flowers in lands up to 2 ½ acres, to encourage production of value added crops for export purposes, encourage production export related goods, achieve self-sufficiency in food items such as pea-nuts, green grams, black grams, dry chillies and pulses, encourage establishment of Divi Neguma entrepreneur villages, to implement a Divi Neguma entrepreneur loan scheme, to strengthen tradition products manufacturing villages, to develop small-scale industrial villages for expansion cottage industries, encourage establishment of plant nurseries, to implement War Heroes Divi Neguma programme, to develop the houses of Samurdhi recipients as houses with cement floors and tiled roofs, expansion of special services for the matters pertaining to malnutrition among school aged children of poor families, improvement of basic facilities for promotion of Divi Neguma Special Savings, Insurance and Pension Schemes, diversification of the income of family units and distancing of low income earners from the habit of consuming liquor.

Planning of domestic units

As it is very important to make the houses of all participants of the Divi Neguma programme as friendly houses, steps have been taken to plan the housing units in a streamlined manner. Accordingly the Ministry of Economic Development decided to plan the home gardens of the houses between the period from March 1 to March 31. During this period the facilitators visited each and every house that will come under the umbrella of 2.5 million domestic units, held discussions with the occupants of the houses and planned on cultivation activities or other activities to be carried out in that particular unit. In these visits they took along with them the officials of the relevant ministries and the political representatives in the area in order to establish better coordination.

The groups who undertook these visits and held discussions with the residents are to submit their report to the Divisional Secretaries of the relevant areas. A handbook containing the details of the domestic unit will also be maintained. The Ministry of Economic Development has allocated adequate funds to implement the programme without any hindrance. The items to be distributed include:

A package of 10 varieties of seeds suitable for he relevant climatic conditions, to provide the required amount of long term plants, to provide minor export plants, two coconut plant saplings for new joiners and for those who were not given previously, three plants that is suitable for the relevant areas, 50 vegetable plants on the basis of 10 each from each varieties, five economically beneficial plants from timber can be obtained on a long term basis.

The objective of this sector is to improve nourishment in families and create self-employment opportunities. The Economic Development Ministry in coordination with the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development will carry out the following programmes for the improvement of this sector. This will include ornamental fish and see weed cultivation, production of dry fish, maldive fish and salted fish, production of fish based meals for the consumption by locals and foreigners, creation of self-employment opportunities linked to the tourist industry, and improving of marketing fish products.

To be continued