by Garvin Karunaratne

We have little say about restrictions being imposed on us. Somehow we have to stand on our feet. In the far past we did have programmes that tackled poverty and enabled people to produce what we need.

However today no attempt is being made to help people to become entrepreneurs, to make what Sri Lanka requires and in that process earn and also help reduce imports. This economic demise has been a process that commenced after 1977, when we started following the Structural Adjustment Programme of the International Monetary Fund(IMF). A condition insisted upon was that all development programmes had to be curtailed or abolished. There should be no new programmes of development. Truly from 1977 there has not been a single new development programme. All that has been approved are of the Samurdhi and Aswesuma type of making donations to the poor. Departments that dealt with economic development were either abolished or sidelined.

Harkback to the days of Premier Dudley Senanayake, when we were definitely self sufficient in rice.  I too played a part in that programme and hold first hand experience as I served as the Additional Government Agent at Kegalla in 1968 and 1969.

Paddy production comes to the forefront because we have had to import very large quantities of rice almost every year recently, incurring a heavy drain on foreign exchange.

Paddy production was done by the Department of Agriculture for long. They had a full staff at District level, a two year trained agricultural instructor at the Divisional level, and at the Village level, an year trained agricultural overseer. This effort was strengthened with the implementation of the Paddy Lands Act by the Agrarian Services Department which for the first time brought about an elected body of cultivators and owners, that planned paddy production. I speak with first hand evidence of implementing the paddy lands act in Kegalla and Anuradhapura. At Anuradhapura we had 296 cultivation committees and there was a staff of three Assistant Commissioners, 10 Divisional Officers and 50 Field Assistants. I can remember meetings of cultivators going on till late in the night at Anuradhapura where we decided on using certified high yielding seed paddy and the apppropriate use of fertilizer. This effort was well organized.

Premier Dudley Senanayake in 1965-1970 took over the implementation of paddy production and brought in the Government Agents of the Districts to lead the programme in each District. The production of paddy was till then assessed by the Department of Agriculture. Premier Dudley was not satisfied and decided that the yield of paddy should be assessed by staff officers of Departments other than the Department of Agriculture, and also done in a plot decided by random sampling. Thus the production was truly assessed. As a result of this concerned effort we achieved self sufficiency in paddy(rice). In Kegalla I arranged for this crop cutting to be done in 1968 and 1969.

After 1970 the Government Agents were to concentrate on the new programme- the Divisional Development Councils Programme(DDCP) and paddy production was given less emphasis. The system of crop cuttings done by staff officers of Department other than the Department of Agriculture was stopped.

The government had throughout from the Fifties a paddy purchasing programme where a high price was given to genuine cultivators. This was discontinued. Two more changes took place the Department of Agrarian Services was more or less abolished- totally slashed and the Agriculture Department paddy production programme was slashed by President Premadasa promoting all agricultural overseers- numbering some 2300 to become Grama Niladharis in 1997. The work done by Agricultural Overseers ceased and a few years later a cadre of Yaya Palakas were appointed, an untrained staff. Thus today the paddy production effort is totally unorganized. Many seed farms were privatized and thus no certified seed paddy is available. It is no wonder that we have had to import rice and unless a definite plan to bolster paddy production is built from scratch, Sri Lanka will have to import very large quantities of rice every year.

The introduction of Provincial Councils and devolving agriculture to them has also eaten into efficiency. Earlier a circular by me, when I worked in the Agrarian Services Department sent by post to all overseers had to be acted upon the next day, After devolving agriculture to the provincial councils the instructions had to be sent via Divisional Ministers of Agriculture.

The production of vegetables and fruit is also unorganized because the Department of Agriculture does not have a field officer- the Agricultural Overseer at the village level which it had till 1997.

From the days of World War II, a Marketing Department- a Department for the Development of Agricultural Marketing was established to help the marketing of agricultural produce. This Department was abolished in 1977, with the country implementing the Structural Adjustment Programme of the IMF. Today all producers are at the mercy of traders. When the Marketing Department functioned producers could hand over veg and fruit to the Markeing Department. Then vegetables and fruit were purchased and sent to Tripoli Market , the headquarters of the programme, where goods were sent to some fifty outlets in Colombo for sale at low pries. This made traders too to sell at low prices if they were to be in business. The aim of the Marketing Department was to offer high prices to producers as well as sell at low prices to city dwellers. The abolition of the Marketing Department happened in 1981. It may be a good idea to re establish the Marketing Department

Aswesuma, the poverty alleviation programme of today that gives money to the poor and deprived people, is only a continuation of the Samurdhi and the Janasaviya Programmes of public assistance. The Janasaviya Programme had the training of receipients to become productive as an integral part. This Programme unfortunately folded with the demise of President Premadasa. Samurdhi too made an attempt at training people but the attempt was a failure. If Aswesuma is to be a success it should include a programme to train the reciepients to become entrepreneurs- thus producing what the country needs..

Sri Lanka is a country blessed with fertile land, ample regular rainfall, which enables the production of paddy and other crops. We had the organization for handling production, which has been dismantled by reducing the staff of the Department of Agriculture, the almost total abolition of he Department of Agrarian Services and the abolition of the Marketing Department. For instance the Marketing Department established a Canning Factory in 1955 and in three years by 1958, we became self sufficient in all fruit drinks and fruit produce Today unfortunately we depend on imported fruit and fruit drinks imported from India to Cyprus and the USA. There goes our foreign exchange

In Dairy Produce too we depend on imports. We do not have a real programme to develop animal husbandry. We must expand the number of Veterinary Surgeons and implement a programme for people to rear cattle.

In Industry too we were till 1977 having a well developed programme of handlooms and power looms that enabled us to be self sufficient in manufacturing textiles,. In 1977 we abolished this programme and the Department of Small Industries was totally slashed. Till 1977 we produced all our clothes including suiting. Sri Lankans that had migrated to the UK when they visited Sri Lanka on holiday came searching for suiting produced by the Hakmana Powerloom. When they could not find Hakmana suiting in the shops they came to the Hakmana Powerloom and when they found that too difficult, approached me – as the Government Agent who controlled the Powerlooms.

In 1958 I was working in Ambalantota and my duties took me often to Weerawila where during the cropping season the air was full of cotton pollen wafting in the air. Sadly we gave up cultivating cotton. Three large stores built for collecting cotton were taken over by me for storing paddy. Cotton can be grown in Hambantota and Mannar/Vavunia areas.

Under the Divisional Development Councils Programme of Premier Sirimavo (1970-1976) we established many small industries all over the island. Special mention is due of the Paper making at Kotmale,and the Boatmaking Industry at Matara where we made seagoing boats and sold them to fishery cooperatives,

At Matara on our own, we established a Crayon Factory, . It took three months for my Planning Officer, Vetus Fernando, a chemistry hons graduate to find the art of making a crayon, equal to Reeves, the best of the day. It took two weeks for Sumanapala Dahanayake, the member of parliament for Deniyaya, in his capacity as the President of the Morawaka Coop Union to establish a Crayon Factory under my immediate direction. Within a month crayons made by the Morawaka Cooperative Union were sold islandwide. Therein lies the path if our Government of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake is interested to develop industries in Sri Lanka. It is a task that can be easily achieved. We can establish many industries to make what we import today.

I can state that Sri Lanka can produce all the rice it requires, all the maize it requires,all the vegetables and fruit it requires all items that can be cultivated and harvested within twelve months  When I served as Assistant Commissioner of Agrarian Services in Anuradhapura I asked for approval to produce all the maize Sri Lanka required in one season. We had the vibrant cultivation committees to attend to that task. Fruits like oranges will require a longer programme. Let us not forget that we have a fertile land with ample regular rain and an intelligent ppeople.

Let me end with a bit of what I achieved in Bangladesh in creating entrepreneurs to enlighten us. I served there as the Commonwealth Fund Advisor on Youth Development. When General Ershard took over the country it was rife in the air that the youth development activities will be abolished. At the final meeting the Hon Minister asked for my recommendation. I recommended that instead of abolishing the Ministry, the Government should establish a youth employment programme. The Secretary to the Treasury the highest officer in Bangladesh said that he will not offer any funds because the ILO had failed to do that task at Tangail in the earlier three years. I argued with him- a one to one battle for two hours. The Hon Minister stopped us arguing and approved my establishing an employment creation programme. This was done in nineteen months and that was in 1983. It is a programme that has been developed and it has by now made over three million youth entrepreneurs. This Programme is documented in eight pages in the Five Year Programme of Bangladesh and is a continuing programme.

In 2011,when His Excellency Milinda Moragoda, till recently our Ambassador at Delhi made a bid for the Mayorship of Colombo in his Manifesto stated that if elected,  he would seek to implement the Youth Self Employment Programme of Bangladesh which incidentally was am amazingly successful scheme introduced to that country by a distinguished son of Sri Lanka, Dr Garvin Karunaratne, who served in Bangladesh as an international consultant.”(The Nation: 11/9/2011