On the eve of the elections, the centre of attention is on who should or would be elected. Political concerns are foremost in the minds of readers, even though how the economy is to be managed is admittedly an important consideration. The political decision making may ignore this concern. The economic issues will be viewed separately by different sections of the community. The candidates fully aware of these different interests have appealed to them in diverse ways giving assurances of varied sorts. They have addressed the business community and assured them of looking after their interests. Professionals have been addressed somewhat differently. Various group interests have been pandered to in interesting ways.
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The most important segment of the population is however the rural community. The rural vote is a decisive factor in any Sri Lankan election. It is perhaps more so in this hard fought election. The most important part of the electorate has been the rural community that constitutes by far the majority of voters. Even though the economy has diversified and agriculture contributes only 13 percent of national income, the votes in rural areas is substantial. It is estimated that about 35 percent of people are directly dependent on agriculture and that nearly two thirds live in rural areas and are indirectly dependent on agriculture. It is for this reason that the political rhetoric is so much focused on agriculture.
Despite the political promises to develop agriculture the policies and performance in agriculture have been far from the expected achievements. In fact agricultural growth has often lagged behind the growth in other sectors and has been responsible for dragging down the country’s overall economic performance. In the last few decades industry and services have grown faster than agriculture. This is so with respect to both plantation crops and food crops, though the achievement of near self-sufficiency in rice is a commendable achievement. Yet even where paddy production is concerned there are serious problems.
For one the marketing of paddy and farmers obtaining a remunerative price has been a serious problem. Storage facilities are inadequate and the government’s marketing channels have never been able to fulfil the promises of purchasing paddy at guaranteed prices or gather in an adequate quantity of the harvest, especially when there has been a good harvest. Equally important has been the issue of an equitable and satisfactory distribution of fertilizer at subsidized prices. It is vital that the government looks into these problems and develops institutional capacities to help farmers.
It is a paradox of international economic development too that despite so much political rhetoric on supporting agriculture, there has been far too little resources devoted to agricultural development. The World Development Report 2008 pointed out that only 4 percent of international assistance went for agricultural development of developing countries. It is much the same with respect to the allocation of domestic resources for agriculture. This is especially so with respect to agricultural research that is not funded adequately and consequently the institutional capacities of research institutions have been seriously eroded. As a result there has been no significant breakthrough in high yielding varieties.
Similarly the extension services are hardly functioning. This lack of concern for research, extension and marketing is the reason for low yields in our crops except for paddy. In the case of paddy too yields hover around 4 metric tons per hectare when research yields are between 10 to 11 metric tons. The non availability of good seed material and poor extension services are responsible for this yield gap. Low yields in the Wet Zone are especially responsible for this low average. Even though we have achieved near self-sufficiency in rice there is a case for increasing paddy production. An increase in rice production is needed not only to meet the immediate needs but also to have an adequate stock to meet shortfalls in future production, increases in demand for the increases in population of about 200,000 persons per year and to substitute rice for wheat.
To achieve higher productivity there must be attractive prices for paddy farmers. High prices for paddy are an effective incentive to adopt good cultivation practices, invest in required inputs and to cultivate lands that have not been cultivated. Increased incomes of farmers should help in reducing debt and increasing incomes of rural communities. It could have a beneficial impact on reducing poverty and reducing the gap between urban and rural incomes.
The political rhetoric is on attaining the unattainable goal of self-sufficiency in food. Although we have nearly achieved self-sufficiency in rice, attaining self sufficiency in sugar and milk, for instance is a dream. Presently we only produce about 20 percent of our requirements of these and there are serious constraints of land and water. On the other hand, there are commodities where we could increase production to satisfy our needs. Increased production of other crops to meet our needs would contribute to economic growth, save foreign exchange, strengthen the trade balance, increase rural incomes and improve food security. There should be efforts to increase the production of other grains such as finger millet (kurakan), cowpea, soya, and local varieties of lentils. Such increases in production matched by a higher consumption of these are means by which the supply of food could be enhanced with advantage to the country. Such varied consumption could also improve nutrition.
On the other hand we should not be committed to the idea of self sufficiency at any cost. For instance we could import chillies, onions, and potatoes cheaply from India and Pakistan under the South Asian Preferential Trade Arrangement (SAPTA), rather than producing the total requirement of these domestically with higher economic and social costs. Therefore, priorities should be placed on increasing domestic production of other import-competing products and exportable crops. Exportable surpluses of crops such as vegetables and fruits can also be increased while there is potential for further development of food crop based agro processing that would expand employment opportunities for rural labour.
Once the elections are over we hope the rhetoric of assisting agriculture would lead to more thought and resources being applied to agricultural development. A National Policy Framework must be developed focused on a long-term vision for both plantation and non-plantation agriculture. This must be a realistic policy framework that recognizes developments such as in considering the future changes in policy environments such as `globalization’ and ‘regionalization’. Policies for infrastructure development and research backed up by adequate resources are needed. The private sector should be encouraged to invest in new technology as has happened to a limited extent in recent years. The promises to develop agriculture at election time must be translated into policies to finance agricultural development. |
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