By Garvin Karunaratne

Living in SriLanka for a few weeks I am stunned that we have no real development programmes that can convert the idle hours of our poor – the unemployed, into an income and in that process also produce some item that we import. This process will also really  create foreign exchange for the country, by obviating imports.

Instead of being developmental we have Asesuma doling out dollars to the needy.

Milk, cheese and many food items are costlier than in the UK- in other words the people cannot buy their requirements. They are bound to forego a meal.

This is simple thinking. We once did it earlier and I am certain we have the resources and ability to do it again. We have a vast number of public servants, for whom we have found work in doing petty things. Why not we marshall them to get into production.

Even the Government Agents of the 22 Districts have no job since 1978. They had vast duties till then. In 1965 what happened was that Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake wanted them to take charge of paddy production and gazetted them as Deputy Directors of Agriculture, Agrarian Services and Cooperatives, the three Departments that attended to paddy cultivation. To enable the Govt Agents to devote their total time to Paddy Production the Government posted a senior officer, the Additional Government Agent to whom the GA was expected to hand over all his normal duties. ( I served as the Additional GA at Kegalla, ) In 1978 when Premier JR Jayawardena came he took back the GA away from paddy production and the GA shunted themselves back to do some work in the Katcheri, some work that the GA had already given to the Additional GA.

I am aware that my idea will create critics- so I will get down to specific instances of success in production.

Let me firstly think of what the Divisional Secretary at Kotmale did in the Divisional Development Councils Programme of 1970-1977. I am sorry I have forgotten his name. He with the youths in Kotmale collected all the waste paper he could find and churned them into rough paper and cardboard.

In my days in Bangladesh, creating the youth self employment programme we used to address hundreds of youths, motivating them to get down to make something for sale and we provided them with a lunch packet that came packed in a paper and cardboard and a few of the youth participants were carefully collecting the paper and card board, packing them to take home where they churned them into cardboard. It was a laboreous process, but they sold the cardboard they made to make a living. Now let us think of what we do today and what we have been doing ever since the days of JR Jayawardena- the Neoliberal days. Since 1978 we have been collecting all the waste paper we can find and we sell it to India and get a few coppers. I saw for myself the waste cardboard being transported this week in Nugegoda. That is not all. We buy the paper and cardboard that India has made out of the waste cardboard we imported and pay them in pounds. And we have been doing this from 1978, Really we need to have our heads examined,

Take paddy production. In 1956 to 1959, The Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake took over paddy production and directed that the GAa had to direct the three departments that dealt with paddy production- the Department of Agriculture, Cooperatives and Agrarian Services. . It was though his tremendous effort that we became self sufficient. Since 1978 we broke up our paddy production. We sold off- privatized the production of high yielding seeds and today the private seed farms sell the seed at a high price. The paddy cultivators find some seed to plant. Gone are the days when we planned production- finding high yielding seeds, motivating farmers to use fertilizer etc. . The Agrarian Services Department which through cultivation committees organized paddy production was almost totally wiped out. The latest was promoting some 2300 Agricultural Overseers- one year trained in agriculture to the rank of Grama Niladhari and this deprived the villlage base of the Department of Agriculture, built over decades. Today the Department of Agriculture has an Agricultural Instructor at the divisional level and he has to attend to around 150,000 or more farmers which he cannot do. Further the World Bank and the IMF decided that the agricultural officers should not use any institutions like cooperatives and should contact farmers direct and we agreed to follow it and thus an agricultural instructor can only meet about twenty to fifty farmers out of a mass of around 100,000 or more. Thus the World Bank and the IMF broke down out agricultural extension system and we follow that till now.

Thus today there is absolutely no village level officer or any public institution to attend to paddy production. The Agrarian Services which had cultivation committees was booted out and what is left today is a few offices that sell some grams of fertilizer. A few officers in clean sarees will weigh a few pounds of fertilizer and they talk big about it. Cultivators work guided by the rains and instances where they fail to plough and cultivate in time are many which cause problems like harvesting getting into the rainy season. Then they blame the rains.

It is high time that the Ministry of Agricuture looks into this and create a programme whereby farmers can cultivate in time. Unless this is done today or in the future we will have to be importing thousands of tons of rice every season- twice a year. Anyhow no programming of any sort can be done now as there is no staff at village level. And meanwhile the Agricultural Instructor creates some statistics. He has no overseers as President Premadasa made all agricultural overseers Grama Niladharis. The Ministry of Agriculture has no staff at village level to plan or do anything. Thus reams of paper are used in air conditioned rooms and programmes are written and everyone is happy. Meanwhile every season we import thousands of tons of rice.

Let me now get back to my boots as the GA at Matara in 1971- 1973, some fifty years ago. Then the Government of Premier Sirimavo implemented a new Programme to create production- the Divisional Development Councils Programme. It was really Dr N.M’s programme. We enlisted hundred of youths on small farms and trained them in agriculture and industries. To direct this programme they head hunted the greatest economist of the day professor HAdeS Gunasekera and created a special ministry directly under the Prime Minister. In my district, Matara, we established a large number of small farms training youths and also established a boatyard that made seaworthy boats. I wanted to set up more industries but the Ministry did not approve. We clashed because the Ministry did not want me to do new industries. So on my own I established a Crayon Factory.

Luckily I had a chemistry hons graduate as Planning Officer. We took over the science lab of Rahula College. Matara from six in the evening to midnight and my officers were experimenting to find the art of making a crayon. We were at it every night and at the end of the third month found the recipe and method of making a crayon. Then I commandeered the Morawaka Cooperative Union to set up a Crayon Factory which we fixed in two weeks working 24 hours a day. The President of the Coop Unon was Sumanapala Dahanayake, the member of Parliament for Deniyaya. We made crayons to fill two large rooms in two weeks and to get legitimacy we invited the Minister for Industries to open sales. We had to buy colours in the open market as the Ministry if Industries said that their funds were not for cooperatives.

We had placed some informants in the Ministry of Industries and found that the Ministry of Imports was about to make an allocation to import crayons and Sumanapala Dahanayale and I met the Minister for Imports and showed him the crayons we made., He was so surprised with the product that he gave us an allocation of foreign exchange to import colours. He stopped the import of crayons. I had to agree to set up a Crayon Factory in his electorate Kolonnawa.

Let me stop this real story of how we once created employment and made things we import today. I can go on but I think I have made my point home.

Let this small summary make our new masters think of what can be done to make our youths entrepreneurs making what we import today. What they make when it supplants import amounts to their making dollars.

We old hands are there ready to help if only the new Government wants to go ahead and correct our economy to move from import and sell, causing us to fall into debt and instead create entrepreneurs that will produce what we need- they will be creating not only items but when used will obviate imports thus creating dollars.

We need not beg for dollars as we will be making them ourselves.

Time for deep thinking

Garvin Karunaratne

former GA Matara, Ph.D. Michigan State Univewrsity

21/11/2025