{"id":104243,"date":"2020-07-04T16:03:11","date_gmt":"2020-07-04T23:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=104243"},"modified":"2020-07-04T16:04:36","modified_gmt":"2020-07-04T23:04:36","slug":"our-failing-agriculture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/07\/04\/our-failing-agriculture\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Failing Agriculture"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Garvin Karunaratne, Ph..D. in NonFormal Education & Agricultural Economics, Michigan State University<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

It is sad that though we have the ideal climate to produce what we\nneed, an intelligent people and  verdant\nland resources we yet are in short supply. Let us take coffee. Once we produced\ncoffee for export. Today we import coffee. We have ideal land for coffee. In\nKitulgala we have perhaps the best climate for coffee. I have seen coffee\nbushes full of fruit on  my irrigation\ninspections up in the hills of Kitulgala. Today we not only import coffee but\nwe see Nescafe everywhere. What we require is a long term plan to get coffee\nplanted. But we gave up National Planning in the late Seventies at the behest\nof the IMF. We have to get National Planning back and have long term as well as\nshort term development programmes going. There is absolutely no other way\nahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Since I left Sri Lanka in\n1973 I have worked in four countries and have travelled- motored   in many countries and it is difficult to\nfind a country that can beat Sri Lanka in resources.      . <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professor Buddhi Marambe in his very informative Paper,\n“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\nthat we produce only 69% of our maize, \n56% of cow pea, 84% of ground \nnut, 49% of black gram. These are all products of the chenas in the dry\nzone and there can easily be a programme to get farmers to produce these items.\nIt is easily a year\u2019s programme with chena cultivation at the end of this year.\nI can remember my days in Agrarian Services in           1963\nor 1964 when I had my cultivation committees active in Anuradhapura, I offered\nto get farmers to produce all the maize we needed. If that had been approved I\ncould have easily done that in one season. With the farmers organization and\nthe officers I had I could have produced all the items in short supply quoted\nby Professor Marambe in one season.  I\nhad the men and the farmer\u2019s organization- the cultivation committees to attend\nto that task.  Sad to say the cultivation\ncommittees are no more and no other peoples organization has come up either.\nThe  grassroot overseers of the Agrarian\nServices as well as the Agricultural Overseers of the Agriculture Department\nare no longer in service.  This is an\naspect that requires immediate attention.(more later) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Profesor Marambe  further\npoints out that  we produce only 10% of\nbig onions and 80% of red onions.  Red\nOnions were produced in plenty in Jaffna and the Assistant Commissioner of\nMarketing in Jaffna had to get them purchased through cooperatives and be  stored. He had to work a fifteen hour day for\nthree months and that includes Saturdays and Sundays. The night goods train\nfrom Jaffna carried easily twenty or more wagon loads of red onions to the rest\nof the country daily for close on three months and we Assistant Commissioners\nin all other Districts were held responsible to get the onions to the market-\nat our shops and at private dealers by sales to them at wholesale rates.. Once\nI covered the Southern Province from Ambalantota. Then three wagon loads of red\nonions came daily to Boosa and another three to Matara. My officers had to get\nthem unloaded and sold, retail and wholesale to shops. I had to ensure\nindirectly that red onions were available even in private shops. One day I\nchecked our stores and our shops and the availability of red onions among\nprivate dealers in Galle. Everything was OK and I was back in Ambalantota by\nnight. The next morning I got a telegram from Head Office. These were the days\nwhen telephones hardly worked.  It\nread  Dahanayake Member of Parliament at\nGalle reports the non availability of red onions in Galle. Investigate and\nreport\u201d. I hooked to my car, back to Galle as soon as I could. I found all\nshops and our shops selling red onions. Everything was in order. I went to see\nMr Dahanayake- waited for him at his residence. He came at about eleven and\ninquired why I was there. I knew him well. Sir you have reported to the\nMinister that red onions are not available in Galle. That is not true. I was\nhere yesterday and am back again here today. There is no shortage of red\nonions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\nto satisfy him I had to send a telegram to the Minister.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“But  my Minister\nwill have a poor opinion of me as I cover Galle and am in charge of seeing that\nred onions are not in short supply.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is politics, We have to be in the good books of the voters\nto get re-elected. I will tell the Minister that there is no shortage  in Galle\u201d \nThat was all. Back in my office I wrote what happened. The matter ended\nthere. Mr Dahanayake had evidently spoken to the Minister. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This incident illustrates the task the Marketing Department\naccomplished. The MD shops had to be having stocks of all essentials-\nSugar,Flour, Dhall in addition to vegetables all at rock bottom prices and we\nAssistant Commissioners were charged to ensure that they never ran out of\nstock. That was how the MD contributed to controlling inflation.  Sad to say today there is no Guaranteed price\nfor red onions. The Marketing Department was axed and there is no system whatsoever.\nFarmers get fleeced with low prices and they hardly produce. Shortages and high\nprices is the order of the day. We cry out aloud that inflation is high. We\nhave even forgotten that we ourselves undid the infrastructure we had intact to\ncombat inflation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professor Marambe  is happy\nabout the production of the staple crop, paddy. However I have grave doubts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What has actually happened in Sri Lanka in the field of\nagricultural development is that since the 1970s  we have neglected the development of  agriculture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paddy(Rice)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Having played a major role\nin peasant agriculture- as an Assistant Commissioner of Agrarian Services,\nlater as Senior Assistant Commissioner and \nAdditional Government Agent at Kegalla in 1968 and 1969 and later as the\nGovernment Agent at Matara in 1971-1973 I was part and parcel of the green\nrevolution in Sri Lanka. In fact I implemented the Paddy Lands Act in the\nAnuradhapura District in 1962-1964 and organized paddy cultivation with the\nfarmers actively participating in the elected cultivation committees, adopting\nnew varieties of paddy following transplanting, applying fertilizer and being\nrewarded with a bountiful harvest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me also make a statement that will not be believed by many. I\nam of the opinion that in around 1966- 1970 we were not only self sufficient in\npaddy, but some of our paddy was taken away to India. I worked in Anuradhapura\nin 1962 to 1964 an am aware of the movements of paddy lorryloads in the\nDistrict.  Later as Senior Assistant\nCommissioner of Agrarian Services covering the island, I often visited  Anuradhapura and noticed that many lorryloads\nof paddy were moving northwards from the Jaffna Junction in Anuradhapura every\nnight.   In my days in 1963 1964 when I was\nin Anuradhapura not a single lorry of paddy moved north at the Jaffna Junction.\nAny cargo moving north of the Jaffna Junction will go to Medawachchiya and\nthere was no need for paddy to be taken from Anuradhapura towards the north.\nThis was very surprising  and I purposely\nchecked this move of paddy again on my visits- I was working In Colombo at that\ntime.  I even reported  to the Commissioner that I suspected\nthat  paddy was being transported north\nfrom Anuradhapura and that a possibility was that it was moved to Mannar and\nfinally to South India. I sought approval to proceed and look into it further.\nThe Commissioner disagreed and there the matter ended. It was decades later\nthat a Police Officer confirmed that paddy was an item that was taken from Sri\nLanka to South India at that time. What is important is to note that we were more\nthan self sufficient in paddy at that time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To get back to the paddy crops in Sri Lanka  Since 1978 we have gone down hill. Let me\nquote a discussion I had with the Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture in\n1980:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1980 when the achievement in paddy production was boasted\nabout I asked the Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture for the records of\nthe crop cutting surveys which we as District administrators had attended to in\norder to ensure that the statistics of production submitted by the Department\nof Agriculture were correct. To my utter dismay, he replied that crop cutting\nsurveys were no longer done. Instead the statistics submitted by agricultural\nofficers was accepted as correct.  No\ncheck was done. These were the officers in charge of agriculture and their\npromotions depended on increases recorded., The importance of the crop cutting\nsurveys was  that these were done by\ngazetted officers of high rank directly appointed by the Government Agent. The idea\nwas to have  a super check on reported\nstatistics.\u201d (My 2006  book))  I have good reason to doubt the reported\nstatistics of yields and production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paddy production was \nreduced due to certain changes that took place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agricultural ExtensionService<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

By the Fifties Sri Lanka had a highly developed agricultural\nextension service with District Agricultural Extension Officers, all  graduates in agriculture at the district\nlevel.  At the divisional level there\nwere Agricultural Instructors, officers who had a two years\u2019 training at\nColleges of Agriculture.  Under them\nthere were around a dozen Agricultural Overseers- called Krushikarma Vyapti\nSevaka at the village level. They had an years\u2019 training in agriculture.  These were the field level officers who attended\nto work with the farmers. With the Agrarian Services Department coming in, with\ncultivation committees under the Paddy Lands Act this agricultural extension\nsystem was boosted.  Under this Act,\ncultivation committees were elected from among the cultivators and  the Department of Agrarian Services had\nDivisional Officers at the divisional level and \na Field Assistant, an officer with an years\u2019 training in agriculture at\nthe village level. This combination of the effort of both\ndepartments-Agriculture and Agrarian Services \nwas an excellent agricultural extension service. The cultivation\ncommittees met and made all decisions re cultivation, and the inputs- the new\nhybrid seed, the fertilizer etc was decided by the cultivation committees. The\ninputs were provided by active multipurpose cooperative societies. I was a part\nand parcel of this extension system myself attending meetings of the\ncultivation committees in Anuradhapura in 1963 and 1964., planning cultivation,\nthe use of high yielding varieties, getting in inputs in time, arranging loans\nand finally seeing that the producing farmers were able to sell the crop at the\npremium price paid under the guaranteed price scheme. The Department of\nAgrarian Service had a staff of close on four thousand organizing paddy\nproduction. With the Agriculture Department staff it was easily an army on the\nmove. None in my team flayed. All slow movers were whipped into action and the\nrecalcitrant were sent home. That did happen wherever I worked and later as\nSenior Assistant Commissioner covering the entire island in 1966 to 1968, I can\nassure that the entire country was terribly activated. The Government Agents\nwere also charged with paddy production and even the Prime Minister devoted\nmost of his time to ensure that the agricultural development programme was\neffective. In this effort I can assure that no stone was left unturned. This\nwas how Sri Lanka became self sufficient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This excellent extension service went though a few changes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Low Emphasis on Paddy\nProduction from 1970<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

With the election of Prime Minister Sirimavo in 1970, the\nGovernment Agents ceased to play a major role in agriculture. Instead Prime\nMinister Sirimavo came up with the Divisional Development Councils Programme\nand the focus of attention switched to that programme which concentrated on\nsmall industries.  In detail, in 1967 and\n1968, when I was the Additional Government Agent at Kegalla, every Saturday and\nSunday the Prime Minister would spend the entire day in his electorate and the\ntask of accompanying him fell on me. He hardly left the shores of Sri Lanka..\nHe would attend around eight to ten functions, meetings of societies partly\narranged by me and partly arranged by his Party supporters and he would go into\ngreat detail to ensure that paddy production \ntook place without any hindrance. He had even gazetted all Government\nAgents as Deputy Directors of Agrarian Services, Agriculture  and Cooperative Development  The Government Agent was divested of a large\nsection of his work by the appointment of an Additional Government Agent to\neach District.  In fact at a Government\nAgent\u2019s Conference when the Prime Minister inquired as to what has to be done\nto enhance the agricultural development programme, one Government Agent\nsubmitted  that a District had only one\nLand Rover and this held up work. The Prime Minister ordered not one jeep but\nthree jeeps to a district. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lack of a peoples institution\nto organize cultivation<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The extension service was crippled by the abolition of the Paddy\nLands Act in around 1980. It was the cultivation committees elected under the\nPaddy Lands Act that organized the cultivation of paddy, planning to use new\nvarieties and arranging the inputs. With the cultivation committees ceasing to\nexist there was no organization attending to this task. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Farmers have to work together in paddy cultivation. Cultivation\nhas to be timed to coincide with the rains. A part of our paddy acreage is\nrainfed while the rest is covered by irrigation schemes. Irrigation schemes too\ndepend on the rain to fill the tanks. Farmers have to work together because\nwater flows from field to field. In order to enable farmers to work together in\nancient times the GamSabha,   did the\ncoordination. Under British rule Gam Sabhas ceased to exist and instead the\nGovernment Agent appointed a Vel Vidane for each village or tract. It was the\nVel Vidane\u2019s duty to hold a Kanna meeting of all farmers at the beginning of\neach season to decide the area to cultivate, which depended on the water in the\ntank in irrigation areas.  The dates for\nclearing canals, ploughing,  sowing and\nharvesting were all decided at this meeting. The decisions included the fines\nthat have to be levied for non compliance. The Vel Vidane generally happened to\nbe an influential person in the village and he could get things done. He could\nprosecute farmers for not adhering to dates fixed at the Kanna meeting and the\nVillage Tribunal President  would impose\nthe fines. Generally the farmers complied. With the enactment of the Paddy\nLands Act the cultivation of paddy fell on the cultivation committee. The CC\ncomprised cultivators and had office bearers from among the cultivators.\nGenerally the cultivation committees were successful in planning the\ncultivation to time. Some cultivation committees in Anuradhapura were so\nsuccessful that they were given the contract to rebuild the tanks which they\ndid by hiring  D8 or D4 tractors to move\nearth from the tank bed and rebuild the tank bund.  The \ncultivation committees played a major role in the green revolution becoming\na success. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the Paddy Lands Act was abolished in the Eighties, there was\nno peoples organization to coordinate \ncultivation. The farmers were deprived of an organization to freely\nparticipate and act together in cultivation. Later by the Agrarian Services\nAct  Yaya Palakas were appointed but the\nsystem was very ineffective. During the days of the Vel Vidane, he held\nauthority from the Government Agent through the DRO(DivisionalSecretary) and\ncultivation was orderly done. When the Paddy Lands Act was implemented the\nCultivation Committees attended to this task. With the abolition of the PL Act\nand the cultivation committees ceasing to exist this organization fell on\nthe  Yaya Palakas who were very  ineffective, The situation today is that\nKanna Meetings are not properly held and cultivation suffers. A glance at paddy\nlands in many areas today indicates that farmers do not adhere to any timing.\nThis results in late cultivation, where the harvest gets caught in the incoming\nrains of the next season. The very disorganized cultivation today is due to the\nlack of a vibrant peoples organization, a cultivation committee in the days of\nAgrarian Services in Sri Lanka or a cooperative in the case of the celebrated\nrural development programme of the Kotwali Thana in Bangladesh, where the yield\nof paddy was doubled and full employment was reached, the only such achievement\nin the annals of development.(The Comilla Programme of Rural Development) It is\nabsolutely necessary to have a peoples institution where farmers can\nparticipate and decide and work together. This is a prime necessity today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crippling the Agrarian Services Departnment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Agrarian Services Department was also crippled and sections\nabolished. The agrarian services centers play an insignificant role today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was important with the Cultivation Committees was that it\nprovided full participation to the farmers. In Anuradhapura they met and\ndiscussed for hours about following innovative practices and cooperated. It was\nthis type of cooperation that played the path to boost yields and achieve self\nsufficiency<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The World Bank\nforbidding  agricultural officers to use\ninstitutions in extension<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

In the Eighties, The World Bank came up with the Training and\nVisit System of agricultural extension which forbade agricultural extension\nofficers from using  any peoples\norganizations like cultivation committees and cooperatives in extension. The\nofficers were detailed to visit farmers direct. A single agricultural\ninstructor has to  cater to between 3000\nto 13,000 farmers  and they can never\ncontact all farmers direct.  In order to\nmake countries adopt this T & V system the World Bank came with grants of money,\nsupporting the countries with funds and the countries gladly submitted. It is\nmy contention that this move of the World Bank was an attempt to ruin the\nextension systems that the countries had developed. It was essentially a method\nof sabotage, like the Structural Adjustment Programme that was forced on\ncountries after the late Seventies by the International Monetary Fund. .There\nthe aim was to make countries \nindebted.  (For more details:\nKarunaratne: How the IMF Sabotaged Third World Development:2017)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Promoting Agricultural\nOverseers to Grama Niladhari<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

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

Thus today the agricultural extension system exists only in name.\nThe System ceases at the divisional level and the extension centers that are\nmanned by Niyamakas who know no agricultiure \nare actually ignored by  the\nfarmers. I can narrate my own experience:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Around 1997, running my small family farm I had the occasion to\nvisit the Extension Centers at Kadawata and Delgoda. The officers did not\nknow  the amount of fertilizer to be used\nand when. At my insistence they raked their files and unearthed details. The\ncircular advised the use of Urea and Ammonium Sulphate at the basal stage  and no mention was made of the top\ndressing(urea or ammonium sulphate). I brought this to the notice of the\nSecretary to the Ministry  who was so\nignorant of the use of fertilizer that he had to refer it to the Director of\nAgriculture and he too was so ignorant that he had to refer it to the Rice\nResearch Institute at Batalagoda and months later I got a reply that the advise\ngiven to me was out of date by half a dozen years. It is very necessary  to undertake inspections of the advice\noffered to farmers  at the extension\ncenters and to correct the set up. About a year later I dropped into one of\nthese Centers  and to my amazement I\nfound  that even the top dressing has not\nbeen incorporated into the advice. In our inefficiency we are wasting\nfertilizer..\u201d(2006 Book, pg.310) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The situation today is perhaps worse: A World Bank Report of 2007\nreads: The Report concluded that Sri Lanka\u2019s agricultural research and\nextension system was weak and probably incapable of supporting  agricultural growth\u201d(Reviewing Sri Lanka\u2019s\nAgricultural Research & Extension System:Towards More Innovation &\nMarket Orientation: World Bank:Colombo:May 2007)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today there is an ineffective Agrarian Services which has little\nfunctions and  with the abolition of the\nPL Act the Agrarian Services is dead. The Department of Agriculture is a\nspecialist department without a base with no Field Officers at the village level.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Provincial Ministries cripples extension activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1962 in the Agrarian Services Departrment I drafted the first\ncircular  on using fertilizer for paddy\nand every Overseer in the entire island had to know it by heart. If any of my\nofficers were found giving the wrong advice they knew what would happen to\nthem. The creation of Provincial Ministries of Agriculture created a system\nwhere instructions had to flow to the provincial Ministries and Secretaries.\nProvincial Ministries held up work and this is no system for a small country\nlike Sri Lanka<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marketing of Agricultural\nProduce<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

By the Sixties the Government had built up a unique agricultural\nmarketing system.. This was the Department for Development of Agricultural\nMarketing. This Department  was commenced\nin the days of Premier DS Senanayake  and\nit attended to the purchase of paddy and other cereals in short supply, the\npurchase of vegetables and fruits, the sale of vegetables and fruits as well as\nother essential supplies at small Fair Price Shops all over the cities-\ncontrolling inflation in the process, running a bakery making bread and\npastries, running restaurants at festivals (like Kataragama) aimed at providing\ncooked food to people-intentionally to control the prices at which private restaurants\nsold eats   to people, producing food\npreparations at a Canning Factory, making fruit juice, jam, tomatoe sauce aimed\nat creating self sufficiency. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Paddy <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under the Guaranteed Price Scheme for paddy and other\ncereals,  the Government offered to\npurchase paddy and other cereals at a premium price. This was done through\ncooperative societies.. The Department prepared a list of  farmers that specified the amount of paddy\nthat could be purchased . This Scheme was implemented by the Department of\nAgrarian Services and  later by the Paddy\nMarketing Board. The cultivator  was\nassured of a good price, well above the local price for paddy and other cereals\nin short supply.. The Government of President Jayawardena abolished the\nGuaranteed Price Scheme. Today what happens is that every season when there is\nagitation by producers being unable to sell, the Government fixes a price for\npurchasing and paddy is purchased from anyone. In this system the incentive\nprice does not go to the producer. Instead it goes to traders that collect the\nproduce and hand over to the Government stores. The government stores are few\nand far between and the producers cannot take their produce  to the stores situated far away.  Actually today the set up of officialdom in\nagriculture is such that there is no official who can prepare the list of\nproducers. This was done by the Agricultutal Overseers the KVS and by the\nCultivation Committees and they do not exist now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An efficient system of marketing the produce has to be made\navailable. This is not there at the moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vegetables & Fruits<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

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

Another service was offering advice to cultivators on what crops\nare required for the country and what crops should be cultivated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

The Vegetable and Fruit Purchasing Scheme with its fair price\nshops and the Cannery is an essential pre requisite for any development. By\n1957, Oswald Tillekeratne the Assistant Commissioner in charge of the Cannery\nhad even developed an export trade in pineapple pieces and rings.  The earnings from exports will easily pay for\nthe total expense of establishing this Cannery again.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The MD suffered when the staff came under the Administrative\nService. It took months to understand and more to be able to admiunister the\nprogramme..  Later there were\nCommissioners appointed to the Department who failed to understand the details\nof how it was run. It was a specialist department and it was run by officers\nwho had developed a specialism.  It was a\ndaunting task running a department with multifarious aims- helping the producer\nas well as helping the consumer, controlling inflation  and also helping the foreign exchange intake\nthrough exports. By all yardsticks it was well run, a great success. The MD\nwith a Cannery is a pre requisite for development. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The details provided of the demise in agricultural extension and\nin marketing the produce is genuine and \nit is sad that the authorities are continuing as if nothing is wrong.\nThese details may not be known to plant specialists and professionals working\nat university level. It so happens that I was a part and parcel of the vibrant\nextension service and the active marketing system that rendered our country\nself sufficient in paddy, cereals and in vegetables and fruits. The system in\nvegetables and fruits not only ensured self sufficiency but also brought in\nforeign exchange by the export of pineapple pieces and pineapple rings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The International Monetary Fund had its arms twisted by the\nWashington Consensus in the Seventies and all the development infrastructure\ndeveloped by the countries to enable development had to be sacrificed. The MD\nof Sri Lanka was also sacrificed and today foreign exchange flows from Sri\nLanka to the Developed Countries for imports. Even tomatoe sause and vinegar is\nimported from the USA. Re establishing the infrastructure for development is a\nprerequisite to enable development goals to be achieved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As far as agriculture is concerned the extension service, which\nhas been weakened has to be restored to enable development, to achieve  increases in production and the poverty\nalleviation goals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am certain that the facts revealed in this Paper will be contested\nby many specialists. I may mention that all what I have written is true and it\nis with the sincere motive of helping agricultural development and achieving\npoverty alleviation goals. In case there are any doubts about the facts\ndisclosed I will be there toface criticisms and \nsubstantiate further.. The cost of bringing about self sufficiency and\ndevelopment  can also be fully recouped\nin foreign exchange earnings from exports and savings in foreign exchange on\navoiding imports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 My aim is to contribute to\nmake Sri Lanka the granary of the East and it is a task that can be done within\ntwo to three years at most. May my message reach our new  leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Garvin Karunaratne<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former GA Matara, Ph.D Michigan State University<\/p>\n\n\n\n

03\/07\/2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Author of How the IMF Ruined Sri Lanka and Alternative\nProgrammes of Success(Godages{2006)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Papers on the Economic Development of Sri Lanka,\n(Godages:2012)              <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 How the IMF Sabotaged Third World Development\n(Kindle\/Godages;2017)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-garvin-karunaratne"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104243\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}