By Garvin Karunaratne, Ph..D. in NonFormal Education & Agricultural Economics, Michigan State University

It is sad that though we have the ideal climate to produce what we need, an intelligent people and  verdant land resources we yet are in short supply. Let us take coffee. Once we produced coffee for export. Today we import coffee. We have ideal land for coffee. In Kitulgala we have perhaps the best climate for coffee. I have seen coffee bushes full of fruit on  my irrigation inspections up in the hills of Kitulgala. Today we not only import coffee but we see Nescafe everywhere. What we require is a long term plan to get coffee planted. But we gave up National Planning in the late Seventies at the behest of the IMF. We have to get National Planning back and have long term as well as short term development programmes going. There is absolutely no other way ahead.

 Since I left Sri Lanka in 1973 I have worked in four countries and have travelled- motored   in many countries and it is difficult to find a country that can beat Sri Lanka in resources.      .

Professor Buddhi Marambe in his very informative Paper, “Battle to Tackle Food Security”(Sunday Island 20/5)  has stated that  our food and beverage imports amount to some  Rs 422.5 billion. It is interesting to note that we produce only 69% of our maize,  56% of cow pea, 84% of ground  nut, 49% of black gram. These are all products of the chenas in the dry zone and there can easily be a programme to get farmers to produce these items. It is easily a year’s programme with chena cultivation at the end of this year. I can remember my days in Agrarian Services in           1963 or 1964 when I had my cultivation committees active in Anuradhapura, I offered to get farmers to produce all the maize we needed. If that had been approved I could have easily done that in one season. With the farmers organization and the officers I had I could have produced all the items in short supply quoted by Professor Marambe in one season.  I had the men and the farmer’s organization- the cultivation committees to attend to that task.  Sad to say the cultivation committees are no more and no other peoples organization has come up either. The  grassroot overseers of the Agrarian Services as well as the Agricultural Overseers of the Agriculture Department are no longer in service.  This is an aspect that requires immediate attention.(more later)

Profesor Marambe  further points out that  we produce only 10% of big onions and 80% of red onions.  Red Onions were produced in plenty in Jaffna and the Assistant Commissioner of Marketing in Jaffna had to get them purchased through cooperatives and be  stored. He had to work a fifteen hour day for three months and that includes Saturdays and Sundays. The night goods train from Jaffna carried easily twenty or more wagon loads of red onions to the rest of the country daily for close on three months and we Assistant Commissioners in all other Districts were held responsible to get the onions to the market- at our shops and at private dealers by sales to them at wholesale rates.. Once I covered the Southern Province from Ambalantota. Then three wagon loads of red onions came daily to Boosa and another three to Matara. My officers had to get them unloaded and sold, retail and wholesale to shops. I had to ensure indirectly that red onions were available even in private shops. One day I checked our stores and our shops and the availability of red onions among private dealers in Galle. Everything was OK and I was back in Ambalantota by night. The next morning I got a telegram from Head Office. These were the days when telephones hardly worked.  It read  Dahanayake Member of Parliament at Galle reports the non availability of red onions in Galle. Investigate and report”. I hooked to my car, back to Galle as soon as I could. I found all shops and our shops selling red onions. Everything was in order. I went to see Mr Dahanayake- waited for him at his residence. He came at about eleven and inquired why I was there. I knew him well. Sir you have reported to the Minister that red onions are not available in Galle. That is not true. I was here yesterday and am back again here today. There is no shortage of red onions.

He gazed at me for a while. You know, Garvin,  one of my supporters came and told  me that there is a shortage of red onions and to satisfy him I had to send a telegram to the Minister.”

“But  my Minister will have a poor opinion of me as I cover Galle and am in charge of seeing that red onions are not in short supply.”

That is politics, We have to be in the good books of the voters to get re-elected. I will tell the Minister that there is no shortage  in Galle”  That was all. Back in my office I wrote what happened. The matter ended there. Mr Dahanayake had evidently spoken to the Minister.

This incident illustrates the task the Marketing Department accomplished. The MD shops had to be having stocks of all essentials- Sugar,Flour, Dhall in addition to vegetables all at rock bottom prices and we Assistant Commissioners were charged to ensure that they never ran out of stock. That was how the MD contributed to controlling inflation.  Sad to say today there is no Guaranteed price for red onions. The Marketing Department was axed and there is no system whatsoever. Farmers get fleeced with low prices and they hardly produce. Shortages and high prices is the order of the day. We cry out aloud that inflation is high. We have even forgotten that we ourselves undid the infrastructure we had intact to combat inflation.

Professor Marambe  is happy about the production of the staple crop, paddy. However I have grave doubts.

What has actually happened in Sri Lanka in the field of agricultural development is that since the 1970s  we have neglected the development of  agriculture.

Paddy(Rice)

 Having played a major role in peasant agriculture- as an Assistant Commissioner of Agrarian Services, later as Senior Assistant Commissioner and  Additional Government Agent at Kegalla in 1968 and 1969 and later as the Government Agent at Matara in 1971-1973 I was part and parcel of the green revolution in Sri Lanka. In fact I implemented the Paddy Lands Act in the Anuradhapura District in 1962-1964 and organized paddy cultivation with the farmers actively participating in the elected cultivation committees, adopting new varieties of paddy following transplanting, applying fertilizer and being rewarded with a bountiful harvest.

Let me also make a statement that will not be believed by many. I am of the opinion that in around 1966- 1970 we were not only self sufficient in paddy, but some of our paddy was taken away to India. I worked in Anuradhapura in 1962 to 1964 an am aware of the movements of paddy lorryloads in the District.  Later as Senior Assistant Commissioner of Agrarian Services covering the island, I often visited  Anuradhapura and noticed that many lorryloads of paddy were moving northwards from the Jaffna Junction in Anuradhapura every night.   In my days in 1963 1964 when I was in Anuradhapura not a single lorry of paddy moved north at the Jaffna Junction. Any cargo moving north of the Jaffna Junction will go to Medawachchiya and there was no need for paddy to be taken from Anuradhapura towards the north. This was very surprising  and I purposely checked this move of paddy again on my visits- I was working In Colombo at that time.  I even reported  to the Commissioner that I suspected that  paddy was being transported north from Anuradhapura and that a possibility was that it was moved to Mannar and finally to South India. I sought approval to proceed and look into it further. The Commissioner disagreed and there the matter ended. It was decades later that a Police Officer confirmed that paddy was an item that was taken from Sri Lanka to South India at that time. What is important is to note that we were more than self sufficient in paddy at that time.

To get back to the paddy crops in Sri Lanka  Since 1978 we have gone down hill. Let me quote a discussion I had with the Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture in 1980:

In 1980 when the achievement in paddy production was boasted about I asked the Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture for the records of the crop cutting surveys which we as District administrators had attended to in order to ensure that the statistics of production submitted by the Department of Agriculture were correct. To my utter dismay, he replied that crop cutting surveys were no longer done. Instead the statistics submitted by agricultural officers was accepted as correct.  No check was done. These were the officers in charge of agriculture and their promotions depended on increases recorded., The importance of the crop cutting surveys was  that these were done by gazetted officers of high rank directly appointed by the Government Agent. The idea was to have  a super check on reported statistics.” (My 2006  book))  I have good reason to doubt the reported statistics of yields and production.

Paddy production was  reduced due to certain changes that took place.

Agricultural ExtensionService

By the Fifties Sri Lanka had a highly developed agricultural extension service with District Agricultural Extension Officers, all  graduates in agriculture at the district level.  At the divisional level there were Agricultural Instructors, officers who had a two years’ training at Colleges of Agriculture.  Under them there were around a dozen Agricultural Overseers- called Krushikarma Vyapti Sevaka at the village level. They had an years’ training in agriculture.  These were the field level officers who attended to work with the farmers. With the Agrarian Services Department coming in, with cultivation committees under the Paddy Lands Act this agricultural extension system was boosted.  Under this Act, cultivation committees were elected from among the cultivators and  the Department of Agrarian Services had Divisional Officers at the divisional level and  a Field Assistant, an officer with an years’ training in agriculture at the village level. This combination of the effort of both departments-Agriculture and Agrarian Services  was an excellent agricultural extension service. The cultivation committees met and made all decisions re cultivation, and the inputs- the new hybrid seed, the fertilizer etc was decided by the cultivation committees. The inputs were provided by active multipurpose cooperative societies. I was a part and parcel of this extension system myself attending meetings of the cultivation committees in Anuradhapura in 1963 and 1964., planning cultivation, the use of high yielding varieties, getting in inputs in time, arranging loans and finally seeing that the producing farmers were able to sell the crop at the premium price paid under the guaranteed price scheme. The Department of Agrarian Service had a staff of close on four thousand organizing paddy production. With the Agriculture Department staff it was easily an army on the move. None in my team flayed. All slow movers were whipped into action and the recalcitrant were sent home. That did happen wherever I worked and later as Senior Assistant Commissioner covering the entire island in 1966 to 1968, I can assure that the entire country was terribly activated. The Government Agents were also charged with paddy production and even the Prime Minister devoted most of his time to ensure that the agricultural development programme was effective. In this effort I can assure that no stone was left unturned. This was how Sri Lanka became self sufficient.

This excellent extension service went though a few changes.

Low Emphasis on Paddy Production from 1970

With the election of Prime Minister Sirimavo in 1970, the Government Agents ceased to play a major role in agriculture. Instead Prime Minister Sirimavo came up with the Divisional Development Councils Programme and the focus of attention switched to that programme which concentrated on small industries.  In detail, in 1967 and 1968, when I was the Additional Government Agent at Kegalla, every Saturday and Sunday the Prime Minister would spend the entire day in his electorate and the task of accompanying him fell on me. He hardly left the shores of Sri Lanka.. He would attend around eight to ten functions, meetings of societies partly arranged by me and partly arranged by his Party supporters and he would go into great detail to ensure that paddy production  took place without any hindrance. He had even gazetted all Government Agents as Deputy Directors of Agrarian Services, Agriculture  and Cooperative Development  The Government Agent was divested of a large section of his work by the appointment of an Additional Government Agent to each District.  In fact at a Government Agent’s Conference when the Prime Minister inquired as to what has to be done to enhance the agricultural development programme, one Government Agent submitted  that a District had only one Land Rover and this held up work. The Prime Minister ordered not one jeep but three jeeps to a district.

Lack of a peoples institution to organize cultivation

The extension service was crippled by the abolition of the Paddy Lands Act in around 1980. It was the cultivation committees elected under the Paddy Lands Act that organized the cultivation of paddy, planning to use new varieties and arranging the inputs. With the cultivation committees ceasing to exist there was no organization attending to this task.

Farmers have to work together in paddy cultivation. Cultivation has to be timed to coincide with the rains. A part of our paddy acreage is rainfed while the rest is covered by irrigation schemes. Irrigation schemes too depend on the rain to fill the tanks. Farmers have to work together because water flows from field to field. In order to enable farmers to work together in ancient times the GamSabha,   did the coordination. Under British rule Gam Sabhas ceased to exist and instead the Government Agent appointed a Vel Vidane for each village or tract. It was the Vel Vidane’s duty to hold a Kanna meeting of all farmers at the beginning of each season to decide the area to cultivate, which depended on the water in the tank in irrigation areas.  The dates for clearing canals, ploughing,  sowing and harvesting were all decided at this meeting. The decisions included the fines that have to be levied for non compliance. The Vel Vidane generally happened to be an influential person in the village and he could get things done. He could prosecute farmers for not adhering to dates fixed at the Kanna meeting and the Village Tribunal President  would impose the fines. Generally the farmers complied. With the enactment of the Paddy Lands Act the cultivation of paddy fell on the cultivation committee. The CC comprised cultivators and had office bearers from among the cultivators. Generally the cultivation committees were successful in planning the cultivation to time. Some cultivation committees in Anuradhapura were so successful that they were given the contract to rebuild the tanks which they did by hiring  D8 or D4 tractors to move earth from the tank bed and rebuild the tank bund.  The  cultivation committees played a major role in the green revolution becoming a success.

When the Paddy Lands Act was abolished in the Eighties, there was no peoples organization to coordinate  cultivation. The farmers were deprived of an organization to freely participate and act together in cultivation. Later by the Agrarian Services Act  Yaya Palakas were appointed but the system was very ineffective. During the days of the Vel Vidane, he held authority from the Government Agent through the DRO(DivisionalSecretary) and cultivation was orderly done. When the Paddy Lands Act was implemented the Cultivation Committees attended to this task. With the abolition of the PL Act and the cultivation committees ceasing to exist this organization fell on the  Yaya Palakas who were very  ineffective, The situation today is that Kanna Meetings are not properly held and cultivation suffers. A glance at paddy lands in many areas today indicates that farmers do not adhere to any timing. This results in late cultivation, where the harvest gets caught in the incoming rains of the next season. The very disorganized cultivation today is due to the lack of a vibrant peoples organization, a cultivation committee in the days of Agrarian Services in Sri Lanka or a cooperative in the case of the celebrated rural development programme of the Kotwali Thana in Bangladesh, where the yield of paddy was doubled and full employment was reached, the only such achievement in the annals of development.(The Comilla Programme of Rural Development) It is absolutely necessary to have a peoples institution where farmers can participate and decide and work together. This is a prime necessity today.

Crippling the Agrarian Services Departnment.

The Agrarian Services Department was also crippled and sections abolished. The agrarian services centers play an insignificant role today.

What was important with the Cultivation Committees was that it provided full participation to the farmers. In Anuradhapura they met and discussed for hours about following innovative practices and cooperated. It was this type of cooperation that played the path to boost yields and achieve self sufficiency

The World Bank forbidding  agricultural officers to use institutions in extension

In the Eighties, The World Bank came up with the Training and Visit System of agricultural extension which forbade agricultural extension officers from using  any peoples organizations like cultivation committees and cooperatives in extension. The officers were detailed to visit farmers direct. A single agricultural instructor has to  cater to between 3000 to 13,000 farmers  and they can never contact all farmers direct.  In order to make countries adopt this T & V system the World Bank came with grants of money, supporting the countries with funds and the countries gladly submitted. It is my contention that this move of the World Bank was an attempt to ruin the extension systems that the countries had developed. It was essentially a method of sabotage, like the Structural Adjustment Programme that was forced on countries after the late Seventies by the International Monetary Fund. .There the aim was to make countries  indebted.  (For more details: Karunaratne: How the IMF Sabotaged Third World Development:2017)

Promoting Agricultural Overseers to Grama Niladhari

President Premadasa in around 1992 promoted some 2400 Agricultural Overseers(Krushikarma  Vyapti Sevaka) to the rank of Grama Niladhari and no trained officer took their place even till today. . It was after a few years that Niyamakas were appointed to that position. These Niyamakas were never trained in agriculture. Till today the Agricultural Instructors at the Divisional level have to attend to any number of farmers between 3000 and 13,000 and this is an impossible task. In extension it is an accepted fact that peoples organizations, where farmers can meet and be addressed by officers  , where they can discuss and decide what to do-using new varieties,  use of fertilizer and arranging loans etc are essential.. The agricultural extension system was crippled. It is sad that the authorities are silent about this. Instead we find Samurdhi officers and such being appointed to attend to various tasks at the village level.

Thus today the agricultural extension system exists only in name. The System ceases at the divisional level and the extension centers that are manned by Niyamakas who know no agricultiure  are actually ignored by  the farmers. I can narrate my own experience:

Around 1997, running my small family farm I had the occasion to visit the Extension Centers at Kadawata and Delgoda. The officers did not know  the amount of fertilizer to be used and when. At my insistence they raked their files and unearthed details. The circular advised the use of Urea and Ammonium Sulphate at the basal stage  and no mention was made of the top dressing(urea or ammonium sulphate). I brought this to the notice of the Secretary to the Ministry  who was so ignorant of the use of fertilizer that he had to refer it to the Director of Agriculture and he too was so ignorant that he had to refer it to the Rice Research Institute at Batalagoda and months later I got a reply that the advise given to me was out of date by half a dozen years. It is very necessary  to undertake inspections of the advice offered to farmers  at the extension centers and to correct the set up. About a year later I dropped into one of these Centers  and to my amazement I found  that even the top dressing has not been incorporated into the advice. In our inefficiency we are wasting fertilizer..”(2006 Book, pg.310)

The situation today is perhaps worse: A World Bank Report of 2007 reads: The Report concluded that Sri Lanka’s agricultural research and extension system was weak and probably incapable of supporting  agricultural growth”(Reviewing Sri Lanka’s Agricultural Research & Extension System:Towards More Innovation & Market Orientation: World Bank:Colombo:May 2007)

Today there is an ineffective Agrarian Services which has little functions and  with the abolition of the PL Act the Agrarian Services is dead. The Department of Agriculture is a specialist department without a base with no Field Officers at the village level.

Provincial Ministries cripples extension activities.

In 1962 in the Agrarian Services Departrment I drafted the first circular  on using fertilizer for paddy and every Overseer in the entire island had to know it by heart. If any of my officers were found giving the wrong advice they knew what would happen to them. The creation of Provincial Ministries of Agriculture created a system where instructions had to flow to the provincial Ministries and Secretaries. Provincial Ministries held up work and this is no system for a small country like Sri Lanka

Marketing of Agricultural Produce

By the Sixties the Government had built up a unique agricultural marketing system.. This was the Department for Development of Agricultural Marketing. This Department  was commenced in the days of Premier DS Senanayake  and it attended to the purchase of paddy and other cereals in short supply, the purchase of vegetables and fruits, the sale of vegetables and fruits as well as other essential supplies at small Fair Price Shops all over the cities- controlling inflation in the process, running a bakery making bread and pastries, running restaurants at festivals (like Kataragama) aimed at providing cooked food to people-intentionally to control the prices at which private restaurants sold eats   to people, producing food preparations at a Canning Factory, making fruit juice, jam, tomatoe sauce aimed at creating self sufficiency.

The aims of this Department were multifold- enabling producers to obtain reasonably high prices for their produce, controlling inflation, making the country self sufficient and developing an export market for canned produce.  This was a unique department the likes of which does not exist in any country today. The aim was also not to make a profit, but to break even. This was a difficult task, entirely done by pricing purchases and sales- running a staff of over a thousand with over a hundred lorries. I was an Assistant Commissioner in this Department from 1955 to 1962 and was in charge of the vegetable and fruit marketing section based at Tripoli market for one year.

Paddy

Under the Guaranteed Price Scheme for paddy and other cereals,  the Government offered to purchase paddy and other cereals at a premium price. This was done through cooperative societies.. The Department prepared a list of  farmers that specified the amount of paddy that could be purchased . This Scheme was implemented by the Department of Agrarian Services and  later by the Paddy Marketing Board. The cultivator  was assured of a good price, well above the local price for paddy and other cereals in short supply.. The Government of President Jayawardena abolished the Guaranteed Price Scheme. Today what happens is that every season when there is agitation by producers being unable to sell, the Government fixes a price for purchasing and paddy is purchased from anyone. In this system the incentive price does not go to the producer. Instead it goes to traders that collect the produce and hand over to the Government stores. The government stores are few and far between and the producers cannot take their produce  to the stores situated far away.  Actually today the set up of officialdom in agriculture is such that there is no official who can prepare the list of producers. This was done by the Agricultutal Overseers the KVS and by the Cultivation Committees and they do not exist now.

An efficient system of marketing the produce has to be made available. This is not there at the moment.

Vegetables & Fruits

Since the late Forties, we developed a unique vegetable marketing system where reasonable prices were assured to the producers. At that time all produce was brought by the producers to the Fairs that were held weekly. This was done by the MD too purchasing vegetables and fruits at the producer fairs in the country, competing with traders.  The country was fully covered by Purchasing Depots and Marketing Officers went to all major producer fairs purchasing . The entire country was covered by Marketing sleuths- Assistant Commissioners of Marketing assisted by Marketing Officers reporting the availability of produce and the rates at which traders were purchasing. Simultaneously officers covered the wholesale market in Colombo , reporting the availability of produce and the prices at which the wholesalers sold to the retailers. The Assistant Commissioner in charge of the Scheme based at Tripoli Market, a large hanger in the Colombo Goodshed, decided the prices at which vegetables will be purchased at the producer fairs. This was always higher than the prices at which the traders were purchasing at the fairs. The traders kept a margin of around 50% at the purchasing point at the producer fair and another  50% at the wholesale market and again the retailer kept a similar margin. The MD kept a margin of around 15% to cover handling and wastage, brought the goods overnight to Colombo and goods were sorted out and sold at small shops in the cities. The aim of the MD pricing formulae was to cover up wastage and transport costs and no profit was kept.  When the MD offered a high price at the producer fair, the traders too had to offer a similar higher price because otherwise no producer will sell to them.  Similarly in the cities when the MD shops offered  goods at low prices the retail traders too had to sell at similar rates because otherwise no one will buy from them. Thereby the MD indirectly controlled the prices at the fairs as well as prices in the cities. The latter helped to control inflation.  The MD Scheme ate into the profits kept by the dealers.

Another service was offering advice to cultivators on what crops are required for the country and what crops should be cultivated.

A further development was made when the Canning Factory was established in 1954.  Then the  MD offered to buy the total available stock of Red Pumpkin which was made into Golden Melon Jam, Ash Pumpkin which was made into Silver Melon jam and Pineapples made into jam, pieces, rings and juice. Tomatoes was also an item where Tomatoe Sauce was made. Then a floor price was offered for these varieties. A floor price meant that MD will purchase the entire stock. Traders generally purchased an amount that the wholesaler wanted.  With the establishment of the Cannery producers earned a good income. Simultaneously Sri Lanka became self sufficient in all Jam and Fruit Juice. This was achieved by 1957- in a matter of three years 1954 to 1957- a task that can easily be accomplished today, because the raw products- red pumpkin, ash pumpkin, melons etc are chena crops that can easily be cultivated in a single season. Today the chena producers produce  limited quantities because if they produce large quantities the price goes down and they cannot sell their produce. Each Purchasing Center was equipped with a lorry and there were instances when additional lorries were sent when large quantities were found at the Fairs. Daily produce came to the Tripoli market- twenty wagon loads and another twenty lorry loads. These had to be cleared and sent off to the retail sales depots.  There was never a situation where farmers had to bury their tomatoes, red pumpkin or pineapple. If that did happen  the Assistant Commissioner in charge at Triploi Matket as well as the Assistant Commissioner in that district will have to face major censures from the Commissioner BLW Faernando.  At the begining of every month there was a conference of Assistant Commissioners when the profit and loss for each unit will be scrutinized by him and  if any of us had priced in a manner where we incurred a loss or profit of over 10% we would be hauled over the coals. The golden rule was to break even. We always planned for a profit of ten percent to be on the safe side. The MD was a difficult department to run. In the districts, on four days of the week at 4 A.M.  I was in my car going off to be at the producer fairs by six. Pricing and changing the prices was an ordeal. The work ended late with even van sales in cities offering produce at low prices to clear stocks.

The Vegetable and Fruit Purchasing Scheme with its fair price shops and the Cannery is an essential pre requisite for any development. By 1957, Oswald Tillekeratne the Assistant Commissioner in charge of the Cannery had even developed an export trade in pineapple pieces and rings.  The earnings from exports will easily pay for the total expense of establishing this Cannery again. 

The MD suffered when the staff came under the Administrative Service. It took months to understand and more to be able to admiunister the programme..  Later there were Commissioners appointed to the Department who failed to understand the details of how it was run. It was a specialist department and it was run by officers who had developed a specialism.  It was a daunting task running a department with multifarious aims- helping the producer as well as helping the consumer, controlling inflation  and also helping the foreign exchange intake through exports. By all yardsticks it was well run, a great success. The MD with a Cannery is a pre requisite for development.

Conclusion

The details provided of the demise in agricultural extension and in marketing the produce is genuine and  it is sad that the authorities are continuing as if nothing is wrong. These details may not be known to plant specialists and professionals working at university level. It so happens that I was a part and parcel of the vibrant extension service and the active marketing system that rendered our country self sufficient in paddy, cereals and in vegetables and fruits. The system in vegetables and fruits not only ensured self sufficiency but also brought in foreign exchange by the export of pineapple pieces and pineapple rings.

The International Monetary Fund had its arms twisted by the Washington Consensus in the Seventies and all the development infrastructure developed by the countries to enable development had to be sacrificed. The MD of Sri Lanka was also sacrificed and today foreign exchange flows from Sri Lanka to the Developed Countries for imports. Even tomatoe sause and vinegar is imported from the USA. Re establishing the infrastructure for development is a prerequisite to enable development goals to be achieved.

As far as agriculture is concerned the extension service, which has been weakened has to be restored to enable development, to achieve  increases in production and the poverty alleviation goals.

I am certain that the facts revealed in this Paper will be contested by many specialists. I may mention that all what I have written is true and it is with the sincere motive of helping agricultural development and achieving poverty alleviation goals. In case there are any doubts about the facts disclosed I will be there toface criticisms and  substantiate further.. The cost of bringing about self sufficiency and development  can also be fully recouped in foreign exchange earnings from exports and savings in foreign exchange on avoiding imports.

 My aim is to contribute to make Sri Lanka the granary of the East and it is a task that can be done within two to three years at most. May my message reach our new  leaders.

Garvin Karunaratne

Former GA Matara, Ph.D Michigan State University

03/07/2020

Author of How the IMF Ruined Sri Lanka and Alternative Programmes of Success(Godages{2006)

Papers on the Economic Development of Sri Lanka, (Godages:2012)             

 How the IMF Sabotaged Third World Development (Kindle/Godages;2017)