the worst period for the king coconut grower, seller and distributor

2008 has been a very bad year for my sales of king coconuts which is my largest revenue source. First it was a year of incessant rain in Colombo (rain still continuing) where my market is and people do not drink this when it rains. To cap an already bad year, where even the man who climbs the trees failed to honor his commitment to turn up on the requested dates, the government has decided to raze all the unauthorised shops on the roads selling products like king coconuts to the weary traveller, and when I came with my load today I found all my regular customers had been steamrolled literally and their livelihoods reduced ostensibly on account of SAARC.

I am all things, a grower, a buyer from other growers, a transporter, a distributor to kades and the golf club and finally also delivering to homes of customers, so I have been affected at all stages of this business, and today the prices are less than a year ago and my sales down over 30% in volume.

Hey what's new when one is down one is really trampled over just to make sure he is finished!!! I have 90 left to sell now at the back of my pickup, does anyone want any? one of the healthiest beverages on the face of the earth looking for a mouth~

food prices in polonnaruwa higher than in western province

the photo of my plate was of prawns caught in the river in front of my cabin in Raja Ela, Hingurakgoda and much tastier than lagoon prawns.

I sold two Ambun banana bunches yesterday, in Hingurakgoda for a Rs1000/- that was for 125 fruit. This is the retail price I sell in my shop, while here the retail price is nearly double at Rs15/- a fruit. So it is a no brainier for me not to haul it all the way, but sell where it is grown. I am told that it is very difficult to grow here in Hingurakgoda, but all three bunches I have taken and sold here have been commended and the shop-keeper told me to bring as many as I want to him to sell. I must therefore try and see what I can do to increase the quantities of this variety of banana in this property.

I have now come to the conclusion that there is a more lucrative market right here for my produce rather than my trying to take it all the way back to the farm in Godagama for sale there. That’s good news for the long term when I am hoping to increase my supply from this base and spend all my time here.

A monkey is grooming another almost in front of me not a bit frightened of my presence. They are a major farmers’ pest, eating everything they can get hold of and the populations have increased alongside the human populations they seem to feed off. They have yet to be taken on the do not kill list. I believe a serious culling is necessary in order to protect food production and the farmers will be relieved.

This increases the cost of food production. I also notice that there are very few people growing vegetables and so if I am successful at increasing the cultivation, I should actually take a stall at the Sunday fair in Hingurakgoda to sell my produce. I am taking 6 bunches of Kolikuttu to Godagama tomorrow and wonder if it is better for me to sell here too, as by the time I take it to the grand dames in Colombo, who will say not ripe yet etc and have to handle it many times, a quick sale of all to one fruit shop will reduce a lot of hassle as well as the wastage in transport.

I am also growing aubergines and have now decided to sell most of it locally as I am unable to travel often due to the high cost of fuel, where I have cut down the journeys I plan on making by half, to just two a month.

A significant shift in the marketing of my produce is called for to make optimum use of the produce I have as well as the most practical and profitable ways to dispose of them.

what it looks like three weeks later

some photos of preparation of fields for sowing

yala planting season begins and is so beautiful

I as a paddy farmer having about 3 acres of paddy land in Hingurakgoda as part of the total 5acre property (the rest planted with coconuts, bananas mango, orange and lime as well as a few vegetable beds)

I have just sown(May17th&18th) white Samba the BG358 variety for the first time, and unlike last season I have not transplanted. This was due to a cost of Rs10,000 to transplant not compensated by the certainty of a much higher yield. I have previously planted red nadu, red samba and white nadu. I want to see which variety gives me the best yield to determine what is best for my particular soil conditions.

As I am the last in my irrigation canal and this season in exclusively tank fed from Minneriya, I foresee a problem with a shortage of water, having to pump water at expense when necessary to cover a shortage. I have obtained permission to close all other water lines for one night a week to ensure I get water, but how this will work in practice is yet to be seen.

It takes me two full days of a 2 inch pipe of pumping to flood all my fields at a cost of ten liters of kerosene which costs 80/- a liter at present. I did this on May 24th and 25th while the water was shut to our canal. It is essential that in the first weeks for the germinated seeds to take root, that fields get a good soak and a head start over the weeds. The days are baking hot and the fields in higher ground like mine can crack in the heat.

I am at a loss to know which season yields more, but farmers tell me it is Yala when the sun is more prevalent and photosynthesis has the greatest chance given the availability of water. Only time will tell! Farmers expected a bumper crop last season, only to be scuttled by the heavy rains at harvest.

It is such a joy to see the new rice plants and its light green form in the fields as it is a sea of green wherever one looks in my area. The farmers are broke exhausted and expectant that this year will see a turn around in fortunes. In wet fields one gets a host of birds, a pair of Indian Rollers in my case, swooping down to catch small frogs and worms in newly sown ground.


The photos here show the preparation of the fields with the tractor, the sowing by hand of the germinated seed paddy, and then the light green fields a week later. In another week they should be at their glorious green.

a downside for yield in the rise in price of rice

Many of the small landowners, who have for the most part inherited their paddy fields have been in the habit of renting them to other farmers to farm and the payment as noted elsewhere is traditionally 20 bushels of paddy per acre rented per season. In today’s terms that is about Rs12,000 per season.

There are experienced farmers who farm large lots of lands on this basis as they have all the mechanical machinery to perform most of the tasks, using minimal labor. It is the next most efficient way of farming this land, short of amalgamating large tracts into one and farmed in one large area by one person. I have a neighbor who does not own any land but farms about 100 acres and does it well and has a higher yield and productivity per man hour than all the small farmers.

When the price of rice increased, the owner not content with the increased value of the rent as it is in kind, has in many cases decided to work the land himself this season and this farmer is now wondering what he should do iin the light of new events.

His solution was to sell some of his farm machinery and buy a large lorry and has decided to buy paddy from farmers and sell them to the large mill owners. Filling a 5 ton lorry he says he can make Rs30,000 per load after paying his wages for hauling and driving and taking account of the vehicle amortization cost. This is for less than a days work as in the morning he knows the millers buying price and he then offers a price to farmers, some of whom will sell their paddy and is able to fill the truck by early afternoon going from farm house to farm house. This he says has almost no risk while paddy farming is full of risk. We lose another efficient farmer this way!!!

In my opinion these landowners who have now taken back control of their land do not know the inherent costs in farming and assume that they can make a lot of money. Inevitably they will lose or at best make only a little and possibly less than the rent they would have received, with a lot more effort and risk. That is not to say that as their efficiency is much less, the output per acre will also fall for the same inputs such as fertilizer. The overall effect therefore is for a fall in yield and the government carrying the cost of the fertilizer subsidy that has actually contributed to a lower yield despite the higher prices in the market. I see no evaluation of this fact anywhere in the discussions of the increased acreage under cultivation.

cost of production of an acre of paddy per season

This is an attempt to give the reader a realistic idea of what it costs to work an acre of paddy for a season (two seasons per year) and the profit and benefit to the farmer is purely a factor of the yield, and the price he receives on the sale of the paddy. This is the cost for the year and ignores the cost of the land or water, which though very real is treated as zero. A farmer who is working another’s land has to pay the owner twenty bushels per acre per season and that is 420kg, which at Rs 30 a kg is 12,600.

This example is worked on the basis of 100 bushels per acre, which is average for good land here in Polonnaruwa, and the yield can vary between types of seed paddy planted but for the purpose of this exercise, this will do.

The fertilizer will cost Rs 1500/- at the subsidized price, which if one purchased in the open market would be over Rs 16,500/- which means the fertilizer price is subsidized to the tune of Rs15,000/- an acre or about Rs7.50 per kg of Paddy produced. The true cost to the nation should therefore include the unsubsidized price at which the government purchases the paddy. The cost of the seed paddy is Rs 2900/- The cost of preparation if paid labor is used except for the farmer who is working his land is Rs 4000/- and the cost of the ploughing using hired tractor driver and diesel is Rs6000/- The cost of weedicides and pesticides is Rs3000/- assuming a low use of such on the property. Then instead of using paid labor to cut, he uses a cutting and threshing machine, the cost is Rs7000/- and then the cost of drying and fanning the paddy before preparing the bales for sale is a further Rs3000/- not counting his labor in taking care of birds and mice and other pests during the growing season. The total cost is therefore Rs27,400/-

The maximum profit to the farmer who owns his own property therefore becomes, a function of the revenue of Rs63,000/- and cost of Rs27,400/- and is Rs35,600/-. And Rs23,000/- if you don’t own the land. On the basis of this being 6 months income, it is a maximum of Rs6,000/- a month. Don’t forget this is based on Rs30 a kg price. The government guaranteed price of Rs22 will only give a profit for the owner farmer of only Rs18,800/- halving his profit. By implication a farmer who has twice this extent stands to benefit twice as much and so on. Bear in mind that half the farmers probably get much lower yields and some have costs that are higher so while this is a guide, it is also a reflection that at this higher price the farmer is still pauperized, despite the government subsidized fertilizer.