N’Eliya farmers face bankruptcy

With fertilizer prices sky-rocketing and concessions promised under the 'Mahinda Chinthana' not reaching farmers, vegetable farmers in Nuwara Eliya are struggling to continue with their business. If this situation continues it could eventually force farms in the up country to close down and drive farmers out of employment.

Back in 1848 an Englishman, Samuel Bakery started a10,000-acre farm in an area close to the region now known as Mahagastota. He introduced vegetables including potatoes, carrots, leeks, beet-root and salad leaves which have provided a livelihood to several farmers over the years.

The concept of President Mahinda Rajapaksa under the "Api Wavamu, Rata Nagamu" is not a reality for the farmers of Nuwara Eliya as the concessions have not been made available to them. Today they are struggling to make ends meet and find markets for their products.

One of the farmers told The Sunday Times that vegetable farmers in Nuwara Eliya did not get the benefit of the fertilizer subsidy promised under the "Api Wawamu Rata Nagamu" programme. They complain that whereas others paid only Rs. 350/- per 50 kg bag of fertilizer, vegetable farmers at Nuwara Eliya had to pay Rs 3,000/- for the same bag of fertilizer. He said the rising prices of chemical-based fertilizer had forced them to switch to organic fertilizer, but the change had led to a drop in yield.

"Our yields are low" he complained "the price of weedicides and insecticides are beyond our reach". He said with the present price of a 50 kg bag of seed potato rising to Rs. 11,000/-, farmers have begun to realize that they will have no option but to switch occupations. We feel that farmers should be encouraged to move into dairy farming he said.

N.S. Hameed, Manager Bank of Ceylon Nuwara Eliya, said the bank's primary concern was to help revive the industry. He said under a special scheme the bank was making loans available to induce the private sector to produce seed potato locally. Under the scheme the loan is released in a single instalment he said, adding that this measure was taken to help farmers overcome their present difficulties.

G. Nadarajah a trader who has been in the business for over six years said present sales trends indicated 50% farmers had given up vegetable cultivation due to the 50% rise in fertilizer costs. He said as against last year's sales of 2,000 boxes of seed potato, this year only 500 boxes of seed material were sold.

The price of a 50 kg box of seed potato now costs Rs. 10,500/-. He said this was a large sum of money even for mudalalis. Additional Government Agent A.D.P. Kumarasiri said in his capacity as Chairman of the Agricultural Committee of the District Vegetable Farmer Organizations, he had regularly raised the issue. He said it was very clear that vegetable farmers needed to be provided a subsidy to meet prohibitive costs.

He called on the state to launch a program to purchase the produce of the farmer and fix a floor price for products such as leeks, cabbage and potato which are being bought up at extremely low prices.

While calling on the state to launch a programme to fix a floor price for the purchase of produce, he called on producers to join hands to safeguard their interests. He said the state should provide vegetable farmers with a subsidy similar to that offered to fishermen. Statistics provided by a private company indicate that only 101 farmers in the district cultivate extents of land over 10 acres, while another 100 farmers cultivate between 2 to 9 acres.

Despite rising costs of agricultural inputs, farmers have noted a drop in the prices, with a kg of leeks fetching Rs. 22/-, carrot Rs. 38/- per kg, cabbage Rs. 15/- Rs. 16/- per kg and potatoes Rs. 55/-. Farmers believe the drop in prices is a result of these vegetables now being cultivated in areas such as Puttalam, Kalpitiya and Dambulla areas.