Navin rooted in oil palm; decries opponents
Plantations Minister Navin Dissanayake is gearing up for another head-on battle with those opposing state plans to establish 20,000 hectares of oil palm in the country.
He called on the rubber and oil palm industry to come up with a set of guidelines to earmark the plan for the future of the oil palm industry in Sri Lanka. The minister made these observations on Friday at the Rubber and Oil Palm Development of the Regional Plantation Companies Workshop held at The Grand Monarch convention hall in Talawathugoda.
Minister Dissanayake pointed out that “the situation has become very controversial for oil palm”, adding that the critics were “very emotional” and blamed any landslides on this industry’s propagation especially in the Kegalle area where he had visited for a discussion with locals, NGOs and environmental activists.
Authorities are currently working on carrying out a research and study of the produce. The Minister remained adamant that they would go ahead with the policy agreed to establish 20,000 hectares of oil palm in the country insisting that this was initially mooted by the previous administration under former President Mahinda Rajapakse.
He assured that the government would not take decisions similar to the policies adopted by Malaysia and Indonesia to destroy large extents of forest cover to be replaced with oil palm. “We can’t do that here,” he said.
However, he told the rubber RPCs that oil palm was not a substitute for rubber and noted that “some of you have been naughty” in this regard.
Rubber, considered a fundamental crop receives state patronage for its development, is currently facing adverse conditions with the falling prices in the world market.
But with the future likely to ensure that the markets would turn to purchasing increased natural rubber as opposed to synthetic rubber, Sri Lanka stands to gain as the country produces high quality natural rubber.
He noted, “Oil palm can be a supplement to your income” and that rubber trees less than 30 years cannot be pulled down because this is a stable product.
Minister Dissanayake also noted that following the assessments carried out on the RPCs it has been found that most companies had performed well while others were “dragging the RPCs down” by not adhering to regulations.
He assured the industry that he would not intervene but pointed out that since the assets were public property the government must resolve to protect it. In this respect, he asked them to “come to a reasonable compromise” with authorities.
He said the rubber sector would be devolved to the deputy minister following a gazette in this regard to ensure that this subject could receive more attention if not from the minister then from the second in line as Minister Dissanayake seems to want more time to his new appointment as national organiser of the UNP.
Plantations Ministry Secretary J.A. Ranjith addressing the industry said that the media and the NGOs had launched a huge campaign against oil palm cultivation in the country.
He also said that in this regard the Plantation Monitoring and Management Division had prepared guidelines for the consultations with the oil palm.
He said the local industry was not exploiting its full potential despite the country producing high quality natural rubber that proves it is a product with an economic advantage.