Why are farmers poor?
File picture of farmers.
The gist of Prof. Sirimal Abeyratne’s (SA) article titled “How to keep them poor?” which appeared in the Business Times section on April 25 is that Sri Lanka doesn’t need more than 500,000 farmers to get the output that they produce now.
There are 1.5 million paddy parcels cultivated by nearly 2 million farmers producing 5 million MT of paddy annually. If there are only 500,000 farmers and if the level of productivity remains the same, our annual paddy production will be around 1.2 million MT resulting in an increase of rice imports and expenditure on imports affecting the economy which is already in a dire status. If only 500,000 farmers are sufficient what will the balance 1.5 million people do. Work as security guards or drive 3 wheelers. It would have been better if SA suggested alternatives.
If there will be only 500,000 farmers, it is obvious that their productivity has to be raised in order to produce enough to meet the national food demand. But the productivity of our farmers tends to be low compared to those in Israel mainly because our farmers are faced with so many problems. They unlike those in Israel are affected by elephant damage. Almost daily we hear about deaths to many people and destruction to crops/property caused by wild elephants.
CKDu issues
Around 50,000 people, mostly farmers in a number of districts such as Anuradhapura, Kurunegala and Polonnaruwa are affected by the kidney disease called CKDu, and on an average three or four people die daily because of this disease. The families of those affected by CKDu are desperate. In some families both parents have died and their children are helpless. Farmers have to obtain water to irrigate their crops from about 15,000 reservoirs in the dry zone but most of these are silted up. As a result farmers are unable to obtain water to irrigate their crops. Thousands of farmers are facing immense problems due to repeated crop failures mainly due to shortage of water. Recently, a number of crops were damaged by the Army Worm. The Ministry of Agriculture had no effective solution and got some “Entomologists” from Rwanda to control this insect without any success. Brown Plant hopper is a common insect pest causing crop losses. Those farmers who manage to get a good crop of rice/vegetables/pulses are unable to sell it for a reasonable price as the government has not developed a suitable mechanism to purchase the produce. Thousands of men and women of farmer families have to walk a few km to obtain water for their domestic needs. Even what is available is polluted. They do not have sufficient finances to fulfill their basic needs and they are forced to pawn their jewellery. According to a news item televised a few days ago, famers in Ampara have prepared their fields and are waiting for seed paddy and fertilisers. No effective actions appear to have been taken by the relevant authorities to find appropriate solutions to these problems. Farmers in Israel do not have to face such problems.
According to Prof. SA, in
Sri Lanka “too many farmers produce too little output” and thus they remain poor. Too little output can be attributed to many factors which farmers have no control. Among these are low quality seeds/planting material, low soil fertility, pests and diseases etc. Unlike the farmers in Israel, our farmers have to depend mostly on imported seeds except paddy, which are very expensive resulting in an increase in COP. Very often the seeds they obtain are of low viability. Most of the Sri Lankan soils are less fertile because of land degradation. Heavy rains during Maha season have eroded soils in most areas. There is a Soil Conservation Act which is not implemented effectively. Erosion causes the soil to be less fertile resulting in the need to apply fertilisers. Importing inorganic fertiliser is going to be banned which may cause further reduction of yield/ha. Farmers in Israel do not have to face such problems.
Prof. SA, mentioning Israel agriculture in his article made me to go to the Internet to learn about agriculture in Israel. A comprehensive description on agriculture of Israel is given in https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/index.php?page=view&nr=456&type=504&menu=139. A paper on Israel agriculture in the Internet concludes as follows. “The Israeli model of agricultural development can be characterised as one which did not stem purely from privatised agriculture but was strongly influenced by the state. Israel may have enjoyed some advantages over other developing countries in the form of high levels of external financial support and skilled labour facilitating the transition to a specialised agricultural economy. Nonetheless, the mechanisms of market systems coordinated jointly by government, private entities and producer organisations, the provision of an effective organisational structure, export promotion, the integrated approach of research and extension services, and the sustainable use of natural resources may serve as a model of agricultural development for other developing countries.” I need not delve into what is happening in SL agriculture. We even do not have a system to provide facilities to store excess fruits and vegetables and about 40 per cent of the produce
is wasted.
Earnings of farmers
If anyone/organisation is keen to increase the earnings of our poor farmers I wish to suggest that a group discussion is held with relevant people including farmers to decide what should be done and get the authority to implement them. In December 2005, I organised an advisory meeting of nearly 50 professionals including farmers and submitted the outcome to the then Ministers of Agriculture (three of them) to implement the decisions. There was lighting of the oil lamp, singing of the national anthem etc at the meeting but apparently there was no action on the recommendations. Later in June 2015 the Convener, Campaign for Sound National Policies Prof. Siri Hettige organised a workshop under the patronage of the then President of Sri Lanka. At this workshop, 10 professionals in the field of agriculture made several recommendations related to National Policy on Agriculture. As usual there was lighting of the oil lamp, singing of the national anthem, key-note addresses etc but apparently there was no action on the recommendations. I am sure that in Israel such things will not happen.