Sri Lanka once known as the "Granary of the East" when people consumed rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner, has been reduced to a country wasting millions or billions of rupees in foreign exchange on imports.
The obvious impact is on the farmer, whether large, medium or small scale, the masses and also on the country as a whole. The resultant chain reaction of neglect through lack of care, inputs and scientific practices, the minimum or basic undercultivation, the ever continuing practice of land fragmentation mainly through inheritances, divisions and even from marriage due to land ceiling laws as a couple is considered as one unit.
l. Land ceiling laws 2. "Ande" cultivation systems 3. Lack of knowledge and easy access to information, guidance, planting materials, input materials etc., 4. Inland revenue curbs and restrictions whether it be travelling, housing, vehicles, taxation etc., 5. High cost of machinery and implements 6. Facilities such as water, electricity, telephone and roadways 7. Lack of a well organised system of farmgate purchasing, transport, storage and marketing.
Unfortunately the situation is very seriously deteriorating day by day and therefore demands a bold and multi-pronged approach to correct and set in motion the path for at least the foreseeable future.
To achieve this end, the following basic and primarily important suggestions are recommended for immediate consideration and suitable action.
1. Lift ceiling on all land ownership. Allow all Sri Lankans to purchase agricultural lands without restriction and spend on development, inputs, machinery, vehicles, buildings, housing, water conservation, roadways and all other connected infra-structure and facilities as necessary.
This could be extended to animal husbandry/milk production and also to horticulture and timber as well.
2. Allow an unrestricted/no questions asked flow of black or whatever money held in foreign countries without resorting to the system of special accounts and amnesties.
3. Grant total tax holidays covering all these aspects and other several connected factors extending even upto 30 years for a start, in view of the fact that initially, it is to arrest a drastically deteriorating situation and then to pave the way over a period of time to build up solidly a system for future generations to continue, in the fact of an increased population.
In fact, the taxation aspect deserves special consideration to be extended to profits from other ventures of individuals and/or companies to be set off against losses on all aspects of these agricultural ventures.
Thus, even the system of apportioning expenditure such as on vehicles, machinery, buildings over 3 or 4 years as being done presently should be done away with and be allowed to be applied to the year of expenditure whereby the losses would be carried forward to be set off against income from other avenues and also against future years.
Even if the implementation of these systems should result in a loss of revenue in the short term, it must be practically viewed from the long term gains of productivity, prosperity, job opportunities for increasing populations, self sufficiency, saving of increased amounts of foreign exchange and even in the hope of earning foreign exchange by way of exports.
4. Abolish the "Ande" cultivation and any other such systems which are actually self defeating with whatever measures practical.
5. Connected import duties on machinery and inputs to be reduced or abolished on a priority basis.
6. With the aid of statistical data, gradually introduce a curb on food imports as the situation improves.
Make available regularly updated information through whatever media and agricultural centres islandwide to avoid a glut of unsaleable/perishable foods and to encourage production of shortfalls.
7. Extend the same tax holidays and investment of money from whatever the sources, systems, to encourage the processing/value added/exports as well.
For the farmer to benefit, local consumption alone may be insufficient for the present.
8. Other connected facilities for the tax holiday should include overseas travel, import of know-how etc., without restriction.
9. Take guidance from the Tea systems to uplift and streamline facilities for rubber, coconut, paddy and other agricultural produce to uplift the plight of the farmer, taking care to avoid prodding on the toes of the so called shark.
10. In short the drive should be aimed at incentivised overall large scale productivity with guidance as to supply/demand and future projections, easy marketability/conversion to cash, various types of storage facilities as necessary to avoid spoilage, distribution islandwide to maintain levels in both product and prices amongst other requirements such as funds, cheaper inputs, know-how and an ultimate export drive.
Our main resources are the people and a fertile soil. The water supply situation is of course an all important subject which must receive top priority attention as possibly water could be considered as a 75 per cent requirement as compared to fertilizer which may be 25 per cent.
In another 30 year’s time our population would have more than doubled.
So, in that scenario unless something drastic is done now, today, one shudders to think of the future as we may not even be able to import due to acute worldwide supply/demand factors and increased costs through such competition, being beyond our reach.
Princess of beauty in burning embers of all our days.... Your life now shattered, so sudden bereft of time to relish a dream, You brought us charm, that smile, the bowed head, those haunting eyes, The tender touch to the commoner you never forgot in your palatial days, Who saw in you their forlorn hopes revived for brighter scenes: The halt, the maimed... the child ‘land-mined’.... a broken heart pumping still... ‘AIDS’ clinging to a slow silent end, and you held its hand with the whsipered word of comfort... And love that only you knew how to give.... We now strew our flowers and weep our tears always asking ‘why’.... From every corner of a saddened world who will miss you now... Yet grief can only claim from the blood and tears of your parting That even in royal hearts a niche remains for the unforgiving time.... Where love has no answer when we try to capture the elusive dream. Mother of the future king, rest now in peace, the chase has ended So far from the garish day... from the stalking lens and prying eyes Rest in your cold tomb that yet will breathe your testament of hope As we grieve and moan and search your dream as "Queen of our hearts"
On 18.08.97, the Nikini Full Moon Day, I had occasion to visit Sigiriya, along with some foreign friends. I would like to detail below some of our experiences on that day, with the hope that those in charge of this and other Cultural Sites, would give some deep consideration to the ongoing practices and arrangements, and bring some relief to both the local and the foreign tourists.
A board on the Sigiriya Road, about three kilometers before one comes to the rest house indicates the turn off to the ticketing office. One enters an uneven gravel road, full of dust and pot holes, and one travels about three kms. to get to the ticketing office.
Once you get to the ticket office, you are told that a foreign tourist would have to pay Rs. 835/= for his ticket, while the locals pay Rs. 10/=... the Cultural Apartheid hits one right across the face, and one has no explanation to make to the tourist, as to why a dual pricing is practised to visit world renowned Cultural Monuments, and one has also to meet the question, whether this sort of discrimination is a part of our culture.
If you have bought a Tourist Ticket also, then you are entitled to take your vehicle to the inner car park, at the foot of the climb up to Sigiriya. You can have access to the car park also by paying Rs. 100/=.
However, in all cases, the visitors have to be dropped off at the entrance near the ticket office, while the vehicle and its driver can proceed to the inner car park, and he will also have access to Sigiriya from that point.
The vehicle, having dropped off the visitors, has to proceed about 8kms, to get to the inner car park - a typical "Parangi Kotte Yama" adventure.
On this particular day, there was a massive crowd of both local and foreign visitors, and all too often the queue was stationary for hours, with the trip up to the frescoes, the mirror wall and the lions’ paws and a climb to the top and back taking over 4 1/2 hours I was told that the situation was the same also on the 16th and 17th. The ticketing office does not seem to have any idea of the massive congestion, and makes no efforts whatsoever, to regulate ticket sale to make things easy for the visitor... "sale of tickets" seems to be the only interest.
A few police officers were making a valiant effort to bring some order, especially among the local visitors, who were all anxious, impatient and jostling the queue to get through with the visit.
To our consternation, we found that we had only around one minute in the fresco gallery, and for a foreign visitor, who had paid Rs. 835/= it was indeed the most expensive glance he has ever had... no wonder, some foreign tourists were heard to remark that it would have been saner, cheaper and more relaxing to have bought a picture post card and enjoyed it at leisure over a cup of tea...
The toilet facilities at the inner car park are once again another aspect of the apartheid practice... the toilets are under lock and key, and are available only to the foreign tourists... that does not however mean that a few rupees to the man with the keys, does not provide the access to the locals also but there it is...
Having gone through all this, the visitors can now get into their vehicles at the car park, and one reaches the exit, which, strange to believe, is only about a hundred meters away from the rest house and the inevitable question, "why all this 11 kms of Parangi Kotte yama" approach, over dusty gravel based roads, when an easy access can be arranged within a few hundred meters off the main road...?
I am greatly impressed by, not only the team spirit of our cricketers, but also by their sacrificial team spirit.
The thousands of people who watched the recent matches against India would have, am sure, observed this sacrificial team spirit.
First of all, I think of that record breaking match where our team amassed a massive total of 952 runs for six wickets. They had to score only another 48 runs to create history (or record?) to get a score board to record 1000 runs.
As it is, any score board could record only 999 runs. But, our sportive team sacrificed this honour in order to, not tire the exhausted Indian team any more. How great!
Secondly, in the recent two matches the two run outs - of Kaluwitharana and Atapattu were real sacrifices.
If the two of them remained in their respective creases, in both cases, it would have been Aravinda who would have been out. But, both, Kaluwitharana and Atapattu walked out of their creases so that Aravinda, the better batsman, would not be out.
I greatly admire this sacrificial team work.
On the other hand, owing to Mongia not moving out of his crease, Azaharuddin, certainly the better batsman, got run out. Had it not been for this, India may have won that match.
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