Farmers mired in fertiliser crisis
The Constitution may invoke the blessings that the rains come in time for a bountiful harvest, but if those in charge of agriculture cannot ensure the farmers get their fertiliser on time, there would be little hope of such a harvest.
Desperate last ditch attempts are in progress to distribute the fertiliser to farmers who have cleared their fields and are already receiving rainfall. All types of excuses have been trotted out, that the previous Government left an outstanding bill of Rs. 10 billion to the private sector; that the COVID crisis disrupted imports and curfews dislocated local transport. All that is of little comfort to the farmer who is waiting with mammoty on his shoulder to till his land.
The GMOA, then in the forefront of the COVID task force, advocated home gardens and the like, and factory workers who went home during the recent lockdown started cultivating abandoned plots taking what was left of fertiliser in the market. The over-use of fertiliser by unskilled ‘farmers’ and the free fertiliser system have contributed to its abuse, and the abuse of the soil.
The Central Bank’s latest report refers to ‘smart agriculture’. They have long advocated the need for new technologies that range from high-yielding fertiliser, pesticides, irrigation and water management etc. The application of fertiliser is part and parcel of agriculture and there’s nothing smart about it when it is not available.
Sri Lanka has still not been able to extend its agricultural development into agro-based industry with the manufacture of fertiliser locally not firing. The country continues to rely on imports. About Rs. 35 billion is spent annually by the Government on the fertiliser subsidy. On the other hand, the last Government suddenly imposed a presidential decree banning certain imported weedicides saying they contributed to the widespread kidney disease among farmers. Then, it was found there was no co-relation between the two. No one really knows if the multinationals eventually won the day by debunking the theory, or the ban was merely a part of a populist, unscientific anti- multinationals campaign.
During the recent outbreak of COVID-19, Sri Lankans were fortunate that there was no shortage of rice, their staple food. It would have been hard to import rice had there been a shortage because it was not available ‘for love or money’ from rice-growing countries that were also hit by the virus and the import trade, shipping and harbours had become dysfunctional.
This is not just luck. Credit for Sri Lanka’s self-sufficiency in rice must go back to the country’s first Prime Minister D.S. Senanayake who opened up the Eastern Province with the Gal Oya scheme and which was to become the ‘rice bowl’ of the nation. Those who opened up the North Central Province with irrigation schemes, and more recently the Mahaveli scheme followed. Self-sufficiency in rice was a high priority in the 1960s, and the country should be proud to have achieved it.
The emergence of a ‘rice mafia’ that has been exposed with recent raids by the Consumer Affairs Authority shows how a handful of millers have monopolised the entire market. These multi-millionaires know to survive with political patronage. Exporting rice should be the next target of the country as a whole.
For now, however, the Government must ensure the farmer gets his fertiliser on time if the people are not to go hungry without their favourite rice plate in the months ahead.