Agri Min proposals fruitless: Industry
The Ministry of Agriculture has rolled out a stream of reforms to curb rising vegetable prices. Addressing traders’ associations on Monday Agriculture Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage said that he was acting under the instructions of the President who had called for strict measures to control prices.
The ministry plans to intervene in the market by abolishing middle-men margins by buying produce directly from farmers and distributing to economic centres across the country. This will be run as a pilot project via the centres in Meegoda, Narahenpita and Welisara. According to the ministry, the pilot project will be carried out in collaboration with the relevant district farmers' associations and the district secretaries of Badulla, Anuradhapura and Nuwara Eliya. Traders will be permitted to keep a fixed margin of Rs20 per kg of produce in the retail market and Rs10 per kg of produce in the wholesale market.
The minister also promised to put an end to the practice of stall owners renting their government granted spaces to third parties as it was adding unnecessary costs to prices.
However, industry experts pointed out that the Agriculture Ministry’s reforms had yet again failed to address the root cause of the country’s agrarian issues – the absence of any coordination between the farmer and the market. Chaminda Vidanagamage, general secretary of the Colombo Business Association held that this sort of government intervention would actually worsen the communication gap between farmers and people buying their produce. He noted that economic centres currently functioned like a ‘pola’ or a Sunday fair, which is futile. “What we suggest is that these centres be turned into wholesale centres like the Dambulla and Manning Market ones. The issue of middle-men only gets worsened when the cost at the economic centres gets added as well,” he said. For it to truly transcend the middle-men issue, the farmer has to directly send his produce to the economic centre. He held the ministry’s plans to purchase from the farmer and distribute to economic centres was very impractical citing that the officials’ lack of market knowledge as a drawback.
The Agriculture Department purchasing the produce from the farmer still means that the power over pricing decisions is not with the farmer. Furthermore, farmers will still fail to produce fruits and vegetables that are in demand in the market since there is no strategic intervention happening to direct them. Mr. Vidanagamage also held that the department lacked the resources to reach all the farmers of the country for a distribution programme of this nature. “Public private partnerships will be a must in the country’s efforts to streamline its agricultural sector,” he reiterated.
“The industry is in the habit of being disappointed by the Ministry because of these impractical decisions that do not stay in action for long,” he said adding that Ministry officials were here for an 8-5 job.
The produce sector is a 24- hour operation that needs constant supervision, something that the ministry is not equipped to provide.
The Colombo Business Association has, in collaboration with other trade and professional associations, compiled an economic revival mechanism with shortterm, medium-term, and long-term mechanisms to revamp the country in its post-covid economic setting. This document was submitted to the president in April this year and the proposers are scheduled to meet with the Agriculture Minister next Monday to discuss the implementation of its recommendations for the agriculture industry.