Farmers in the Polonnaruwa district are pawning gold jewellery and mortgaging farming equipment in a desperate bid to raise money for the next cultivation season.
These farmers, who had anticipated high prices for their last harvest, were unable to sell more than 50 per cent of their stocks after failing to get the expected prices. They are in a bind, with no cash in hand, with the next season due to commence in the next two months.
A Sunday Times investigation reveals that farmers have pawned an estimated Rs. 50 million in gold jewellery at co-operative banks in the district. The Kavudulla Co-operative Bank, for example, gave out Rs. 9 million to farmers for pawned gold jewellery, and more than Rs. 3 million for mortgaged agricultural equipment, including hand tractors and chemical-spraying machines.
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| Farmers in the Polonnaruwa area are mortgaging their farming equipment to have cash in hand to undertake the next round of paddy cultivation. |
Many of these farmers had hoped for a better price than the Rs. 28 offered by the state, and they had hoarded stocks. In fact, prices dropped to Rs. 20.20 per kilo.
The only item the cash-strapped farmers can expect at low cost is state-supplied fertiliser.
According to farmer T. K. Dharmathilleke, Polonnaruwa farmers had staged a protest in 1994, saying they deserved better prices for their rice. Some desperate farmers had committed suicide. “We were demanding Rs. 13 for a kilo at the time,” he said.
“After 16 years we are asking for Rs. 28 per kilo. The market price is Rs. 25 per kilo. In 16 years prices have improved by only a measly Rs. 12. The cost of living has gone up a lot since 1994.”
Farmer Dharmathilleke said the middleman is the person who profits from their produce.
“We have been systematically cheated over the years,” he said.
Thirty-four-year-old A. Janaka said his family have been farmers for generations. “But farming has taken us nowhere,” he says. “Many of us have switched from rice to vegetable cultivation, but here too the middleman is getting the better of us. It is he who is profiting from all our hard work.”
Meanwhile, paddy purchaser D. Sirisena says he has a large stock of unsold paddy. He fears that paddy purchasing and selling may be a serious problem at the next harvest.
Lands and Land Development Deputy Minister Siripala Gamlath, who is also a leading mill owner, told the Sunday Times that his mill has not halted the purchase of paddy. “Our government has given paddy farmers a number of concessions,” he said.
M. K. Jayatissa, a prominent figure in the Polonnaruwa farming community, says the millers are exploiting farmers. “While we live by the sweat of our brow, toiling in the fields and trying to scrape a living, the millers sit in their air-conditioned offices and rake in the money,” he said. |
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