10-20 % farm produce lost due to wild animals
Around 10-20 per cent of the agriculture harvest in Sri Lanka is lost today due to wild animals rampaging farm lands which has become a grave problem, according to the Additional Secretary (Development) Ministry of Agriculture I.U Mendis.
He was speaking at a media briefing held at the Hilton Hotel Colombo recently on empowering innovative farmers by Dave Tractors, the distributors for John Deere agricultural equipment in Sri Lanka.
He said the agricultural sector in Sri Lanka faces other enormous problems today such as marketing, productivity, postharvest, inputs such as seeds and fertilizer, chemicals, policy-related matters and the threat from wild life.
In the early 1980’s the contribution made by the agricultural sector to the GDP of the country was 56 per cent but today it has come down to 6.9 per cent as people engaged in agriculture has come down to 29 per cent from 50 per cent.” That is why mechanization has become so important today in view of the labour shortage.”
Referring to productivity and postharvest in view of a labour shortage, he said the country has to embark on mechanization to boost productivity to reduce postharvest losses. However he said mechanization also faces problems due to shrinkage of landholding owned by farmers.
“The landholding of farmers today stands at around half an acre to 1.5 acres and few people own more than that amount. Therefore the mechanization tools for farming should be in conformity with the extent of available land, is a challenge for the John Deere group to provide the appropriate tools for farming,” he said.
The Additional Secretary further said that mechanization in Sri Lanka is happening little by little. “There are 55,000 four wheel tractors and 170,000 two wheeled tractors and the annual requirement of four wheel tractors in Sri Lanka is around 3500- 4000 whereas the two wheel tractors stand at around 10,000.
The Ministry of Agriculture and the Department of Agriculture have decided to offer lands for entrepreneurs to open up mechanisation centres in the country to promote agriculture in the country.
Director-Sales and Marketing – John Deere Asia, Jurgen Sieber said John Deere started building tractors 100 years ago and today it is the seventh-most innovative company in the world. “Fifty years ago we started our business in China during the period when the relationship between China and the US was not so good.”
He said the big mission of the company was innovation, quality and to provide a good service to the farming community by employing ethical standards. High quality tractors with innovative technology produced in India is brought down to Sri Lanka to work in the farms here.
He said mechanization was needed in many parts of the world today due to scarcity of manual workers who prefer other types of work today.
Executive Director, Dave Group Sri Lanka, Ms. Minelle Siriwardena said when financing agricultural equipment such as tractors, most financial institutions are willing to boost agriculture in the country. She said the Dave Group currently markets agriculture equipment such as 2WD and 4WD tractors, combine harvesters, front end loaders, sprayers and agricultural tools.
“We also have construction equipment such as excavators and motor graders as well as forestry equipment such as log loaders and timber jacks.”
Referring to traditional farming methods, she said the use of buffaloes is on the wane where mechanisation would help farmers to prepare land faster and also for sowing, spraying and harvesting. Sales manager, John Deere Asia (Singapore) Pte Ltd, Vinyak Vasagade said the market share of John Deere four wheel tractors in Sri Lanka is around 40 per cent where farmers with support from financial institutions are now adopting to innovative technology.
“The higher demand is for the four wheel tractors in Sri Lanka,” he said.