by Garvin Karunaratne

The Peoples’ Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena at a Seed Distribution at Mawatagama rightly said We look forward to accomplishing the special goal of building the economy of the country”. In detail, the economic development of the country has to be with the farmers”. He has also emphasized that the next challenge is to support small and medium scale industry.”(Ceylon Today: 7/7/23)

Our Prime Minister has to be congratulated for making this statement.

How can this be achieved? A year has passed by since our Prime Minister took office and it has so happened that within this year no new programmes have been implemented to bring about any economic development.

This Government inherited a situation where the farmers were deprived of inorganic fertilizer due to the ill-advised programme of the earlier President. The paddy harvest fell by around fifty per cent and consequently, the farmers’ incomes faltered and the country faced starvation. It is correct to state that easily five to six million people in our resplendent country which is blessed by Mother Nature with ample rainfall and fertile land, have had to face starvation and forgo meals. Today food is available but sadly, beyond the purse strings of the majority.

Having worked in the field of economic development in Sri Lanka for seventeen years, and having also worked in other countries- faced with youth unemployment in Bangladesh in my two year consultancy I established the Youth Self Employment Programme and trained the members of the elite Bangladesh Civil Service to continue it after my consultancy was over- and today this programme has flowered to guide over three million youths to become self employed, the most successful employment programme one can find- perhaps my ideas may be worth considering.

As our Prime Minister says farmers should come to the forefront. Recently our Minister for Agriculture hailed seed scientist GA Jinadasa for producing the seed variety AT 362, which finds a record yield. Four farmers that had harvested a yield of 10-11 metric tonnes of paddy per hectare were felicitated. (Ceylon Today: 7/7/23). In a country where the present average yield of paddy is 3 to 4.5 metric tonnes on average the variety AT362 offers a miracle solution.

Sri Lanka has well over a million farmers with small extents of land and how can this seed be provided to all the farmers? Sri Lanka, once, before 1977 had Paddy Seed Farms and today some of these Seed Farms have been sold off- privatized. Sadly our leaders fail to understand the fate of a country that privatizes its important functions. Thus actually we may have a seed variety that turns our a fantastic yield but unfortunately, we have no mechanism to produce enough high-yielding seeds and also no method of distributing it to the farmers. Our Minister talks big but this is sadly the true situation. 

The vacuum in agricultural extension is because President Premadasa in one of his unguarded moments promoted all 2400 Agricultural Overseers working at the village level to become Grama Niladharis and since then- 1992 there is no trained officer at the village level whom the farmers can contact. The agricultural officer closest to the farmers is the Agricultural Instructor at the Divisional level, but he has to attend to 3,500 farmers at Ranorawa or as many as 13,000 at Yodakandiya. In short, there is no method by which the Agriculture Department can make the miracle seeds or even if it is made, distribute it. The Agricultural Ministry can talk and make statements but it has no legs to walk and get things done. The Agricultural Extension Centres of the Agrarian Service Department do not have any officers trained in agriculture. These serve only a farmer who visits.

It has to be stated that once – before 1977 we did have a proper extension service. Then the Department of Agriculture did have 2400 agricultural overseers at the village level and also a sister department- the Agrarian Services Department had established cultivation committees- elected under the Paddy Lands Act and the Agrarian Services had over a thousand field officers trained in agriculture and it was the combined effort of these two Departments that enabled Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake to achieve self-sufficiency in paddy by 1970. I was a live party to this development- first working in the Agrarian Services Department and later as the Additional Government Agent at Kegalla. In Anuradhapura, three of us Assistant Commissioners in Agrarian Services established 296 cultivation committees in 1962-1964 and we worked with the farmers, and our meetings with the farmers continued to even late at night.

Today there is no officer trained in agriculture for the people to contact and there is no peoples organization for the people to meet and discuss and get down to work together.

Thus it is left to our Prime Minister to immediately organize training in paddy cultivation for all officers manning agricultural extension centres and also increase the training of Agricultural Instructors for each Division to have a few Agricultural Instructors. Further, these officers should be asked to develop cooperatives in all areas where the farmers can meet, discuss and arrive at decisions re-cultivation of paddy, hold kanna meetings where extents to be cultivated and when cultivation should take place etc are decided. Today even kanna meetings are not held. Paddy cultivation has become a no man’s land.

I would quote from my book: Nuwarakalaviya:

Instead of development what we are seeing today is the neglect of the irrigation systems and the total destruction of orderly cultivation that once existed when the Government Agents and later the Agrarian Services handled irrigation administration.

It is absolutely necessary that action is taken to backtrack to a vibrant system like what we had when the Government Agents were handling minor irrigation with the Vel Vidanes. Otherwise the death knell of the economy of Nuwarakalaviya is a forgone conclusion”(pg104)

It is my hope that our Prime Minister may please consider re organizing minor irrigation and paddy cultivation as was once done by the Government Agents. This does not required any legislation. The Government Agents and Divisional Secretaries are there in place and they come directly under the Hon. Prime Minister. It is only one decision by the Prime Minister to restore a system that was once in force a few decades ago, in 1965.

Our Prime Minister had also emphasized that we should develop small and medium scale industries. Not long ago- in 1970-1977 the Government established the Divisional Development Councils Programme, where small industrial and agricultural units were established. A total number of 33 200 youths were trained in agriculture, livestock and small industries. Many small industries were established in all Districts. The Divisional Secretary at Kotmale established a small factory making paper and cardboard out of waste paper. This was a great success. Sad to say that though waste paper to paper cum cardboard factories can be immediately established, we have not even thought about it. We import paper instead of making it. .

I served as the GA at Matara and in my distrcit many small industries were established like making farm implements, making sago out of manioc etc. The most successful of the small industries I established was the Mechanized BoatYard at Matara where twenty youths were trained and they did make some 35-45 seaworthy motorboats a year that were sold to fishery cooperatives. Again my Planning Officer Vetus Fernando who was a chemistry grad found the art of making crayons at the science lab of Rahula College and our Morawaka Cooperative Union  did establish Coop Crayon which did produce crayons that were sold island wide from 1971 to 1977. This was a great success. It was all done without a single dollar- dyes were purchased in the open market at high rates. I approached the Controller of Imports when he was about to authorize the import of crayons to a private firm and convinced him that we could make all the crayons if only he gave us a small allocation of foreign exchange to import dyes. He agreed but wanted me to get the approval of his Minister, Mr Illangaratne. I and the member of parliament Sumanapala Dahanayake showed the crayons to Mr. Illangaratne and said that this was produced by our Morawaka Cooperatives. I can yet remember the gleam on his face after he scribbled on a piece of paper and looked at his fingers to see whether the crayon had left a stain. He not only authorized an allocation of foreign exchange for the import of dyes but decided that all imports of crayons should be stopped forthwith. This true story tells us how we should proceed to establish industries. 

It is all in the court for our Prime Minister to act. Please direct the Government Agents to take charge of paddy production as was done by Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake in 1965. Please also direct the Government Agents to develop small industries in the districts using local produce, for our use and this will also save dollars we spend on imports. .

This is a task that can easily be achieved within a few months with no dollars- with local rupees and when we do produce some items like paper we will save our dollars that are spent on imports and if we produce crayons- which we are certain of doing, we will not only save all what we spend today to import but we can also export.

Over to you, sir, these are ideas that can be put into practice immediately if only you do decide.

Garvin Karunaratne,

former GA Matara, 19072023