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)
