The Drought - Tobacco Company – in the farmer’s pocket – or the other way round

There is a huge ongoing issue in the Bakamuna Elahera, Yoda Ela stretch, Mahaweli H zone I believe it is called. No water has been supplied to the farmers after a promise that water would be released on May 1^st. Water was released for a few days, which confused the farmers into getting ready for planting and then it was stopped. No water has been sent subsequently.

Firstly the farmers who jumped into preparing their lands were left high and dry licking their losses. Then the Tobacco Company reps jumped in and offered an alternative of growing tobacco where they will supply all the inputs without having to lay down any money and will only deduct the costs once the harvest is in from the final proceeds, which suited many farmers. Many of the people with connections to the local politicians, who promised them the minimum water, got into that line and are continuing this cultivation to the disgust of the farmers who did not, and the anti tobacco NGOs who are complaining that there is a mafia controlling the limited water supply to supply the tobacco plantations.

THERE IS NO DRINKING WATER let alone water for cultivation. The Problem is acute, within a month the people will explode into violence against the inability of the government to act and their continuing to help their own friends and connections in the Tobacco Cultivations.

WE MUST DO SOMETHING TO HELP THEM. They have NOWHERE TO TURN. GO SEE FOR YOURSELF THIS IS NO JOKE.

No one to hear their plight. They believe the politicians are far removed from their daily problems and as the politicos cannot solve their immediate problems prefer to stay away in 5 star AC comfort in Colombo. Even the President who turned up at Elahera about a month ago, hooked it back to his Helicopter and flew away into the sunset, and did not wait to make the speech he was supposed to, as he would have been lynched by the people for saying things that do not mean anything to them.

The problems have got so acute as even drinking water is at a premium with wells running dry as the traditional Yoda Ela Canal is not supplying even a trickle of water for bathing as there is no water in the Mahaweli system to supply the diversion through Polgolla that comes into this area.

The Govt. DOES NOT give subsidized fertilizer for tobacco so the tobacco farmers are completely on their own, with advice from their reps to manage their plantations, and the necessary help within their own organizations. The farmers not in this cultivation allege that the District Secretariat staff assist them in breaking rules to provide them with water. It is possible that violence may be directed at these people before long.

Don’t say I did not forewarn of the impending catastrophe. When you are thirsty and see no way of buying water, when you have no way of paying for medicines or for food as these people have used all their savings already, you do not understand the seriousness of the situation.

Any politician who goes there without a solution at hand with them, will be lynched so no one dare go there. You cannot promise anything anymore as people will not believe any promise as they know they are mere words.

Added to this the sudden withdrawal of the fertilizer subsidy for other crops has spooked farmers who did not know in advance that this subsidy had been withdrawn. So for their corn, green gram, soya cultivations, they will have to purchase their own or manufacture their own fertilizer at market prices. Today that is a moot point for the Mahaweli H zone farmers as they are facing a bleak future at least until the October rains.

Why do we wait for the problem to get worse before we take steps to try and help? The Minister of Disaster Management, don’t say you have not been informed.  If we assist in helping them with something like emergency tube wells we may at least alleviate the drinking water problem. I was suggesting a bowser of water but then when one village is helped, the other village will say they did not get water and get angry with the giver. This will be considered just a band aid to prevent the deep cut that needs stitches.

Tobacco cultivators be warned, along with Pradeshiya Sabha members of the area, your plantations face the first of the blows. More importantly anyone who is willing to help DO NOT go to the Government departments who will take all you have to give and more without any of the needy people getting anything. Go direct, give each a bottle, tag their fingers so they cannot come for seconds and give as much as you can.

A case for a close look at the Fertilizer imports – quality sucks!

I missed the 7am SLTB bus to Hingurakgoda, because it left the Ratmale junction at 6.45am and so took the Private bus at 8am. Rs37 is the bus fare and it was packed with the locals going to the Sunday Pola (farmers market) including those who missed the earlier bus.

I got the chance to chat with my friends in the Pola, where I used to go every Sunday when I was in town in my farming days. I had not seen them in a while and many had not even heard of the accident so were pleased to see me hobbling just with a walking stick now!

I was chatting with a farmer friend, who had brought his produce to the pola for sale. Boss Mama is what I call a professional farmer, in a small way intensively farming about 5 acres and has tried almost everything. So it was him, I used to go for advice in the past, and was generally talking about the state of farming, and the problems he was facing.

Now though the fertilizer subsidy at a lower amount is given to the farmers for other crops, I was asking him about some of the issues. He was quite firm in that the Urea he uses is a little suspect now. The quality has dropped substantially. It is all imported, mainly from the Middle East as it is a by-product of the Oil Refining processes. I checked the international prices at the moment, being US$550 a ton which works out to Rs72/kg or over Rs3500 per 50kg bag for which Rs1000 is charged, the rest being the government subsidy. The actual cost is now higher as it must include the transport, and retailer margins when one buys it locally.

Either way there appears to be some fraud that goes on in the procurement processes for this. There is a tender board through which the urea is purchased, and I read in today’s Sunday Times about serious irregularities in the tender process being highlighted. Be that as it may and remembering how the tea small holders are also demonstrating about the poor quality of their fertilizer, urea being the main component for the lush growth of the tea bush, it boils down to a problem! These tea smallholders were complaining the fertilizer they purchases actually killed the tea bushes a serious allegation.

Another problem in using state procured fertilizer to which the government must accept full responsibility.They must right these wrongs. 

Another disaster in the offing. The hapless farmer is in the thick of it

I am in Minneriya during the Poson weekend, for some rest and relaxation, but I have been confronted by a problem that the local farmers have brought to my attention that I believe needs to be noted at the national stage and I do not see the prominence given to it as it deserves.

As I came by bus to Minneriya at dawn last morning, I was shocked at the low level of water of the Minneriya tank, which was full at the same time last month when I was here a for a few days over Vesak. It shows that there is no water to be sent from Polgolla via the Yoda Ela down to Polonnaruwa as the Victoria Dam is empty and the water level has gone down to a depth that the old Teldeniya town which was submerged is now on dry land!

If there is no serious rain, then the farmers who have sown will lose their crops as I do not believe there is enough water in the Minneriya Tank today to tide them over till the harvest. So at least the farmers who were not allowed to work their land in the Elahera Bakamoona line are spared this disaster, though they are agitating for a greater share of land to be ploughed, not realizing why they have been asked to keep the land fallow. There is not proper information flow from bureaucrat to farmer.

It is a mess that does not have a solution, as the farmers have ploughed in everything literally into the land and if they are not able to harvest, there is no real relief, which is enough to turn the area into a disaster zone with farmers not being able to feed their families. It is a possibility not worth contemplating, but needs to be addressed sooner rather than later, alerting them to the impending disaster rather than them having to face the music later. It is important therefore that the water to the land is reduced immediately to save it for a later date rather than hope for rain that may not transpire. We in Sri Lanka are poor communicators and it shows.

Let us begin with a water index in the newspapers and highlight the value of water conservation immediately especially for farmers who waste water as they do not pay for it directly. It is only then that farmers will not waste water unnecessarily in a way I have pointed out time and again here in the blog, to prevent other farmers from getting water. I believe that we MUST ACT NOW before it is too late for this season. The young paddy plants look so lush and green today hiding what might be in store!!

The vast areas of arable land that is not cultivated in Sri Lanka

I would like to point out that in my travels in the Gampaha district lately, I see huge swathes of land that remain uncultivated. They are mainly the paddy lands which we see all around us. This is simply a shame. The government as usual tries to make rules for people to follow, not make the foundation for a solution. So what they do is say they will take over uncultivated lands, unless the owner cultivates it. By making such rash and unsound statements, they are laying themselves open to ridicule.

It is simply not practical to farm these lands in small units. In order to achieve a profit the whole field, some with over 50 owners must be cultivated as one, and the renter can pay the owners of the land, an amount based on that person’s allotment size. The problem is one person’s opinion of what is a reasonable rent may differ from anothers, so there may be some form of set rate, and as all the owners have to participate, as otherwise the tenant farmer will not take up the opportunity, it is not an easy one to solve, but is doable.

It is this out of the box approach that is now needed for cultivation, as we are only realizing a minuscule amount of productivity from our lands due to the small intensive agriculture we have practiced for generations, which does not make economic sense today.

On the legal side, what they need to do is to reinforce the ownership of the land, so the owner does not lose his rights if someone else rents that land for any purpose, even to graze their cattle. If one just takes the latter as an example, if I am able to rent a large paddy field for a period of three years to grow grass, and then use this new variety of grass that is high in nutrients for the cows, I may be able to run a profitable dairy business.

If I can do this in the Gamapa district close to the areas of consumption of milk, it will serve many purposes. It will help us become self sufficient in Milk production for domestic use. It will also help us utilize unutilized land for a constructive purpose without using it as fallow. A mix use of growing grass can turn the soil fertility round and be a good intermediate crop before the owners retake the land once the leases expire and grow their agribusiness after taking learning from the current tenant of the self same land.

Most agricultural advisers see this anomaly, and have suggested that they get involved in the projects currently in existence. It is very important that we understand, that the land lies fallow because the owner is otherwise engaged in a career however the interpretation of the law precludes him from renting out the land either, due to the fear that it could be taken over.

In conclusion, we must enact legislation without delay to preserve the ownership rights of property and permit renting out of land for a fair rate that provides the high risk farmer a certain level of knowledge that he can farm the land for the term of the lease without any encumbrances other than simply making the annual payment in advance. In this system all stakeholders will be empowered to make a difference by using their land wisely to maximize the productivity and benefit the nation.  

I believe too few people understand the potential of this land, because we are still stuck in the 18^th century as far as agricultural practices are concerned and must take a few leaps of centuries to get to the current date and implement practices adopted now. What is worse a lot of emphasis is on going back to past to copy from what was done then.

Once must learn from the past so the same mistakes are not made by a new generation and adopt the relevant practices for the present.

The whole of the Gampaha district is becoming a place littered with single family dwellings on one level, some with large plots others with just enough room for a home, and many in between. Of course the in between ones appear to use the land area for growing food to feed the family, whilst the larger plots are generally under utilized as it requires a large labor input if it were to be cultivated intensely. They nevertheless have an assortment of trees that produce different fruit depending on the seasons for personal consumption, surrounded by the fields I referred to which are not economical for the owners to attempt to cultivate and which they dare not give to another farmer to work on for fear of not being able to recover the land.

So I believe the law must be clear, and one should not have to go to court to retrieve the land once the lease expires and must automatically revert to the owner unless there is a new lease agreement from scratch as a new rental that is agreeable to both parties.

The guaranteed price – Is it a win win situation for both parties?

In my blog entry yesterday I reported on how once farmers were given a guaranteed price for their produce, in this case corn of Rs35/kg they were able to produce a bumper crop, which for the first time made Sri Lanka a net exporter of corn. If this is a real life example then we must adopt it for other crops, especially if we can guarantee export at a quality and price the importer in the foreign country wants.

It is worth remembering that if the price in the local marketplace was higher than Rs35/kg, I wonder if our farmers would stick to the agreement or try and sell their produce elsewhere! Either way, it is a start and has proven to work and the farmer who grew this crop definitely wins hands down over the farmers who planted paddy.

It is also worth remembering that the fertilizer subsidy extends to all crops now and so the urea used by the corn farmers now costs Rs1000 a 50kg bag as opposed to the Rs4000 which is the world market price at which the government buys it to sell to these farmers. I would dearly like to know what the average use of urea was per 1000kg of corn. If it was two bags then this extra cost of Rs6000 must be added to costs to determine if the nation as a whole benefits as the 35,000 per effectively incurs an export levy of Rs6000 a tone. As today’s spot price in NY is Rs 33,000 for corn, then one wonders how beneficial it really is! We are effectively giving the exporter a subsidy of that amount. The flip side of this is would the farmer have grown this product if he had to pay full price for the Urea, an essential component input in the growth of corn as a little is put into each planting hole at planting to maximize weight and plant growth?

So, on the same vein if paddy farmers are guaranteed Rs35/kg for a quality paddy that will be used for export, then we again must take into consideration the fertilizer subsidy when counting the cost of export. In this case the per ton subsidy is greater as the fertilizer subsidy for rice is much greater as the same bag is sold for Rs350 to the paddy farmer and not Rs1000 as sold to the corn farmer.

When the Rs50B subsidy for fertilizer per annum is accounted for I wonder whether our calculations of the success are true!! It is something for the policy planners to think about when making rash statements of the success of this type of export. What if this subsidy is removed? Will the net benefit to the economy be plus? Only good paddy land will be cultivated and the surplus will not arise, and possibly give rise to shortages and price rises. Another interesting possibility for consideration. I really wonder if this sort of analysis is undertaken by the planners in making important decisions that affect the lives of ordinary people.

Exporting Corn to Taiwan and Canada! The sweet smell of success

I must confess that I am pleasantly and unbelievably surprised that after many years of Sri Lanka being a net importer or corn, we are now a net exporter of this product for the first time. If the government statistics are to be believed, our annual consumption of corn is 180,000 tonnes and this year due to a harvest of 200,000 tonnes we have a surplus of 20,000 tonnes for export. That is an extremely creditable achievement which we hope can be built upon, firt for corn and then for other products. I Understand that Wyamba Traders have entered into forward purchasing agreements with up to 2200 farmers in Anuradhapura District at Rs35 a kg for the maize/corn  which takes 75 days from planting seeds to harvest and this has helped the farmers earn a reasonable return as compared with paddy cultivation.

I have grown corn myself and know if it is grown in large quantities one can use many labor saving tools to harvest and separate the corn from the cob, which is obviously the reason for this success. Most of the corn we produce goes for animal feed, and in the past we imported this to make the animal feed. There is no doubt that we have used high yielding varieties of seeds bought at high cost, from international suppliers who amy also have used GM seeds, though our seed control people are blissfully unaware that we are unable to market GM produce in the Island!!

Nevertheless credit must be given to the farmers for producing corn in abundance so that we have sufficient for export too. I hope we do not see a day when we import this commodity if we have ideal soil and growing conditions to grow it at a cost that is lower enough where we can compete in the world market with other suppliers. I am at a loss to know why we are sending corn to Canada, surely a very high producer of the item! I guess there is a reason for that.

On a related issue I am currently not in the loop on the price of corn in the market. All I know is that egg producers are losing money hand over fist with the drop in egg prices to Rs6 wholesale which would be the price the producers receive no matter what we pay at the store! If the feed cost including corn is so high, I do not know how they can sustain purchasing this product, and if they cull their flocks due to the losses, then the demand for corn would drop further.

This success in our agricultural products could be a fore runner of more marginal land going from paddy cultivation to growing corn as the latter does not require that much water and in the Yala season a perfect intercrop to complement paddy, and once harvested the spent trees can be ploughed back into the soil to improve the humus content of the soil as well the natural nitrogen content. I have fed the newly harvested plants to my cows as animal feed also so I am sure with some ingenuity many uses can be found to enrich the soil of paddy fields with this crop.

Divi Vinashaya – why there has been no plan

I was asked why I was so harsh on the Divi Neguma program. It is simple. It was designed by fools who can’t think beyond their noses. They have fooled everyone for what? Let us just take an example of the two aspects of farming. One by those engaged in it for a living, the GOVIYA! And the other the kitchen garden. The latter is only encouraged to grow, for improving the diet at home, by eating healthy fruit and vegetables and having a surplus to exchange with neighbors, take to relatives, or sell in the local pola or to local kades, to supplement income.

One example of how we must get rid of the surplus.

Since the end of the war the North has opened up to agriculture. Farmers there appear to be more efficient in their production techniques and are giving a run to the Nuwera Eliya farmers as they are competing to produce up country vegetables. Then they are giving a run for the red onion farmers in the East, as they can also produce this, thus reducing the price from the Rs200s per kg to single figures. The produce from the North coming to the Dambulla Economic Zone, has reduced the vegetable prices significantly putting a lot of farmers in the South who were less efficient out of business permanently. They cannot compete with more productive, and efficient producers.

Sri Lanka must make an arrangement with the Maldives to fly produce from Jaffna airport to the South Atoll and then to resorts closer to them. The exporters in Colombo currently find a big problem in supplying the orders for their Maldives customers, so it would be a method of directly supplying fresh produce from the North to them, and reduce some of the bottlenecks in bringing it to Dambulla. 

The Government should engage in this if it is to find solutions to these problems. They are simply unable to think outside the box and so get into a situation, where they have encouraged people to produce with no means of marketing the produce. In the end the relationship must be a direct one with the farmer and the exporter, who will produce to order, knowing that prices and quantities are guaranteed. The farmer at the same time MUST understand that in order to get a guaranteed price, when there are shortages, and the prices in the market exceed the guaranteed price, he must fulfill his commitment to the exporter, who has stood by him, rather than sneaking out the produce to the local market for higher prices.

The surpluses created could just as soon DRY UP and become shortages. The Govt. will be to blame. They have not been able to find suitable markets, and in the meantime the farmer has gone belly up leaving it to the survivors to prosper.

There is very little information on the plight of the farmer in the Press, as it is a topic that very few reporters understand. We are creating a very hard working underclass that are misled by this government as regards to their entitlements, without adequate explanation as to what we wish from them and the promises made to them. We have therefore let the farmer down, by lying to him and taking advantage of him.

Only time will be a luxury to show the error of the present direction and the need for an equitable solution