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Foreign investors waiting for peace deal - Sachs Big foreign
investments have not yet come into Sri Lanka because foreign investors
were waiting for a permanent peace deal between the government and
Tamil Tiger rebels, eminent Professor Jeffrey Sachs said last week. "Foreign
investors want to see whether there is a permanent peace agreement
and whether the government's economic strategy is being implemented,"
he told reporters. "The more the peace process continues the more international help would be forthcoming," said the former Harvard University academic who now is Professor of Sustainable Development and Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. Sri Lanka has
potential to be a regional hub like Singapore and could be a place
"where international business comes to get into India,"
Sachs said. Sachs, who
is advising the government, was in Colombo on Wednesday for talks
with Economic Reforms Minister Milinda Moragoda, Central Bank Governor
A.S. Jayawardena, and other government and World Bank officials. The government
was doing a good job in managing the economy which had performed
"reasonably well" despite the world economy not being
"too friendly to Sri Lanka", Sachs said, adding: "That
shows the country has a lot of potential and how robust this economy
can be." He described
the government's growth targets for next year as "very ambitious"
and said it depends on peace, donor support, and the ability to
attract foreign investment. "Peace has been good for economic growth. There's potential in tourism, infrastructure, and reconstruction. The international community is ready to invest a lot of money - in roads, ports, education, and health. The sooner peace comes the sooner those investments will come," Sachs said. By M.C.
Mohamed Zakeel, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Rajarata While the national
requirement of rice per year is approximately 2.8 million metric
tonnes, Sri Lanka produces 2.6 million metric tonnes per year. However,
Sri Lanka is very close to self-sufficiency in paddy production. Less than one
percent of the requirement is imported to Sri Lanka. It has been
estimated that projected rice requirements by 2005 would 3.1 million
metric tonnes. The average yield of paddy is 3.5 tonnes per hectare.
It is approximately 70 bushels per acre. Many progressive programmes
are undertaken to enhance paddy production in the island. Paddy is an
annual cereal. It is cultivated twice a year in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka
gets bi-model rainfall called the North East and South East monsoons.
Paddy is cultivated based on this rainfall pattern. Paddy is cultivated
in two seasons called the Maha and Yala. Maha fully depends on the
North East monsoon while the Yala season depends on the South West
monsoon as well as irrigation. Nearly 870,000 hectares of land extent
is under paddy cultivation. Similar to
other cereals, seed paddy is used to grow rice. Various methods
of cultivation of paddy are followed in different regions in Sri
Lanka. These are direct seeding, transplanting (random transplanting
and row transplanting) and the SRI system. Under the direct seeding
method, dry seeds are sown onto dry soil and germinated seeds onto
wet soil. Generally 3
to 3 1/2 bushels of seed paddy are used to get seedlings for one
acre. One bushel of seed paddy is used to get seedlings for transplanting
one acre. In Ampara and some parts of Polonnaruwa, farmers use five
to eight bushels of seed paddy for sowing on acre. On one hand,
this helps to control weeds because of high density of the rice
plant. On the other hand, it enhances the incidence of attack by
pests and spreading of diseases. This is because of a suitable micro-climate
for pests and diseases under the dense canopy of rice plants. However,
in my point of view, it is profitable due to the high production
per unit land extent. The extent
of land under paddy cultivation is diminishing due to several factors
such as lands becoming marginal while some lands are being eroded. In the 1940s,
Sri Lankan farmers grew paddy once a year. But it has changed now.
Farmers intensify the land three times per year; two times with
paddy and one time with non-rice annual crops. It is enhanced through
the breeding of low-aged varieties. Productivity is also increased
through this breeding programme. These programmes are carried out
by the Rice Research and Development Institute (RRDI) in Batalegoda.
Internationally it is done by IRRI (International Rice Research
Institute) in the Philippines. Green revolution in rice hybridization
which helped in early 1960s is a good example. Under this programme,
a variety called Mass from Indonesia was crossed with another variety
from Taiwan called Dee Geo Wogen. The hybrid received by this programme
is called IR-8. A lot of short-aged varieties have been produced
by RRDI in Sri Lanka. The Chinese
are the pioneers in demonstrating the commercial viability of hybrid
rice technology in a self-pollinated crop like rice. They demonstrated
this almost 21 years back. Exploiting the stable and well combining
WA-based cytoplasmic male sterility restore system they could develop
and also successfully spread hybrid rice technology to over 58%
of rice growing areas in China. The cropping
period of paddy can be divided into foue phases. Those are seedling,
vegetative, panicle initiation and maturity. Some readings portray
three phases; vegetative phase, reproductive phase, and ripening
phase. Pest and disease
attack may be prevalence in all these four phases. Weed competition
may also be severe during both vegetative and PI (panicle initiation)
phases. Therefore, proper weed control and appropriate pest and
disease management are vital aspects to get a good yield. Pest and
disease management is performed through Integrated Pest Management
(IPM). The complete use of pesticides to get rid of pests and disease is not desirable due to the residual affect. Therefore the IPM has been recommended. It is performed through the integration of cultural, chemical, and biological pest and disease control measures. Under biological methods, lots of enemies are used to control pests. Rice is the only unique cereal capable of growing in flooded soils because of its ability to oxidize its own rhizosphere. It is termed as a heat and water loving plant; requiring high temperature and adequate moisture supply. Nature has blessed several morphological as well as physiological adaptations for the rice plant to survive in a swampy environment. The oxygen which is liberated in the leaves during the process of photosynthesis (carbon assimilation) is transported to the root through aerenchyma in the shoot system and lysigenous channels in the cortex tissues of roots. Among all cereal crops, rice has the lowest productivity per unit of water use. Continuous deep flooding of the water practiced in rice cultivation consumes huge quantities of water. The water consumption of rice crop is very high compared with other arable crops. Integrated nutrient management in rice is another aspect to optimize the profitable yield. Bata bounces back from dismal 2001 year Bata, once Sri
Lanka's premier shoemaker until it ran into a host of problems,
has bounced back with an operating profit of Rs. 12.4 million at
the end of the 2002 financial year against a loss of Rs. 31.2 million
at the end of 2001. The company said its retail chain of attractive stores had contributed greatly to this turnaround. A number of retail outlets in this chain were given a "new look" in keeping with Bata international standards and now operate individually under a new scheme that ensures generation of increased sales resulting in a higher turnover. Turnover at
the end of 2002 was Rs. 1.09 billion compared with Rs. 1.02 billion
in 2001. The company
said the management has successfully overcome the turbulence in
the organisation to the mutual satisfaction of both parties (management
and workers) and further consolidated its industrial relations with
its employees by entering into another three-year Collective Agreement
with the Wanija ha Karmika Sevaka Sangamaya covering the Company's
unionised employees. A Voluntary Retirement Scheme was also introduced to senior employees with a view to ensuring maximum capacity utilisation of the production line thus ensuring that expenses were kept at a minimal level. In the first four months of the current year, the company has recorded an operational profit of Rs. 23 million against a loss of Rs. 7.6 million in the previous year and a pre-tax profit of Rs. 4 million against a loss of Rs. 29.5 million earlier. The troubled
Union Bank, being taken over by a Sampath Bank-led consortium, last
week got a new chairman and a CEO. Ajith de Zoysa,
chairman of the AMW group, was appointed the new chairman while
Mahendra Fernando, an experienced banker with international experience,
was named its CEO, informed sources said. In a statement,
Sampath said together with a consortium of investors including Chinkara
Capital Ltd of Singapore it had finalised the negotiations and due
diligence for the recapitalisation and restructuring of the troubled
bank. The process,
which received the approval of the Central Bank, will now involve
a capital infusion by investors in the bank of Rs. 600 to Rs. 700
million. Once completed it would result in the reconstitution of
Union Bank's Board of Directors and the appointment of an Advisory
Board to oversee operations. De Zoysa is also chairman of Museaus College. Fernando started his banking career in 1971 at HNB but has spent most of his time in the Middle East, serving in managerial positions in banks there. |
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