The case against agriculture, in an era of better opportunities- surely not!

It was an extremely difficult year in my agricultural endeavors, and if not for supplementing my income from additional work in Colombo, I could not have made it. It was another year of disappointing harvests, with a fresh round of crises. Upon analysis of this year’s problems, the key was one of lack of discipline and not following specific instructions. This coupled with a severe labor shortage when the need arose, meant a fall in output. It is an eye opener that I was unable to get the required results from the one area I could control. This inability to get to grips with the labor/human resource issue is one that convinces me of the desperate need to elevate agriculture to a different plain with educated, motivated and well remunerated managers who are dedicated to this field. In order to make such a task viable, it is essential to run a much larger establishment with maximum use of mechanization, and use of new capital intensive techniques.

The frustrating part for me is to see how relatively inefficient my neighboring CIC Hingurakgoda Farm of over 1300 acres is, as I cannot use it as a working example to make my point, as the profit per acre from agricultural activities on that property is arguably below mine. In my opinion, one should get a net profit of Rs50K per acre in agriculture in SL after paying for all the costs, (excluding land). So this figure can be compared with the rental for the use of the land. We must use this as a starting point when doing the business plan of agricultural activities, as otherwise the opportunity costs of going into other fields is preferable to working the land.

I can market everything I produce if the quality is consistent and superior, and have failed to get the output directly from my land, and from the outgrowers to supply my customer demand. We must therefore shift away from the perennial problem of the farmer in marketing his produce, but concentrate instead on growing quality as the increasing demand for quality will capture every item of production. The problems that are highlighted of farmers disposing of their produce for lack of a market, can be solved with a little bit of common sense, once storage, transport and logistics are sorted. The greater problem of the shortage of quality is what needs to be urgently addressed before prices go through the roof. Free marketers will say, let the market take its course, when price increases, more of the product will be grown, which will result in a drop, sometimes too much to make it a total loss.

The bottom line on all of this is efficient production at low cost will enable the farmer to wither all price fluctuations which are only temporary. A larger enterprise can be intelligently managed and current risks mitigated by planning. One should not resort to knee jerk moves such as imports to distort the market.

Getting to grips with the Food Production Dilemma – Sri Lankan Problem

We in Sri Lanka have not yet been able to distinguish fact from fiction in the food production dilemma. There was a time, when it was thought that we should not bother with growing any food, as other people can do it better and cheaper, so lets do what it is that we can do better, and effectively let all our agricultural lands go to forest, where we can encourage tourism with the growth in the National Parks!

I am not one to subscribe to that viewpoint, though I do agree that our agricultural practices are inefficient and outmoded. I have belabored this point right through the blog as any reader would notice. So all I am advocating is a complete change in the way we operate, being focused in all we do, and remove as many of the risk factors as possible, because agriculture has the most unknowns in any venture.

The government MUST work with one purpose, without encouraging grape growing for a wine industry, or importing ostriches to increase meat consumption. Such fantasies are by those unaware of the ground situation aka ‘politicians’. We have a lot to learn from the agricultural practices of the plantation industry, as well as those of the outsource success stories of companies like Ceylon Tobacco Company for their management of labor and outgrowers. We must also learn from the past mistakes of large scale agricultural failures that led to the small holder emphasis. This issue demands so many resources and thought put to it that no one appears to have the time or patience to attempt this, least of all politicians.

In my opinion, lets take product by product and have a definite national plan to encourage or discourage as well as the preferred size of operation. It was noticeable that once again, people were encouraged to apply for blocks of land in the Mahaweli zone in 50acre lots for agricultural projects, as if it was some kind of panacea for these ills. We know what happened to the original leases granted thereon, and once all the trees were cut, the top soil eroded, you cannot give this land away free if you wanted to. It is important to have a goal, as to what will be suitable for that land. Then assistance subsidy and sound business plan must accompany this as well as follow up thereon. So many agricultural projects in SL have floundered even with the best of intentions, that only a concerted effort can arrest this likelihood.

Let us begin with paddy production and have a national plan for that. Let us all understand that this plan should encompass all varieties of Paddy and different objectives for high yielding and organic varieties as both have a market, but at different levels. Then understand the workings of the farmer, best practice, work ethic and develop a practical plan, first by selecting an area which can be replicated nationwide if successful. In order to be selected, various criteria must be in place, and then the subsidy and education of the farmers and best planting practices can be implemented. People will say we already have Bathalagoda Rice Research Institute for training and imparting knowledge. If so look why it has failed and look at methods of turning it around. They have recently set up a Rice Research station to advise farmers, but I would like to know who have obtained training, and how much land has been cultivated by them, and see how their yields have improved due to the training, as that is the obvious measure of its success.

Without learning the lessons of the past we can never improve for the future and as a working paddy farmer I can honestly tell you I learn something new every day, and blame the lack of common sense of the farmer for a lot of the ills we are faced.
I have digressed somewhat from the main point of the article, namely to find away out of the mess. By way of example I have highlighted the problem in one instance, but am convinced that there is NO attempt YET at arriving at a comprehensive agricultural policy to match all the suppliers and consumers, and improve productivity as all this will contribute to the growth of the GNP at a far higher pace than simply relying on the service sector to take up the slack.

I firmly believe that this is the key to economic growth that has completely eluded the planners and politicians, one that will directly flow into the hinterlands, if only we can harness sufficient interest. With the hotel sector also growing and willing to pay a premium for quality produce, even they are struggling to get the variety of produce at the exorbitant price they are being asked to pay. We cannot play catch up with supply and demand and wait for that to come to equilibrium. Proactive steps must be taken immediately. I recently read an article where a prominent Buddhist priest was exhorting people to realize the value of growing some of their own food at home in pots or in a small plot, just to mitigate their food cost, and gain an appreciation for quality food and value of agriculture, something that is desperately needed, but which is not the solution to the problem per se.

You only have to go to the Pola at any village to realize how little is grown locally as in local to the village, and how costly the food items are with much having been transported from afar, from dried fish to coconuts. If today’s Rs60/- coconuts are any indicator of the future, we have no idea what we are in for, are we waiting for the coconuts to reach the magic Rs100/-? This to me is the most important task, surpassing the cost of living committee, which are all playing to the gallery. Only an immediate focus on food security and the plan to insure against it will suffice.

Here we go again with re-imposition of Price Controls on the sale of Rice

Today’s papers announced the establishment of a high powered Cabinet Sub-Committee on Cost of Living, chaired by the President, with 15 Cabinet Ministers and including the Prime Minister. Concurrent to this following on from the import of Chicken and Eggs recently announced, they have imposed price controls on Rice, the single most essential ingredient in the diet of the average person.

One does not stick a bandage each time the wound bleeds, one has to find out why it is still bleeding and try to prevent the causes, like controlling the diabetes!
I have intimate knowledge on Paddy and Rice as I am a farmer who grows more varieties of Paddy than anyone else I know and converts that into multiple varieties of Rice and sell it direct to consumers, so I have both a stake in this subject and an opinion on what needs to be done, without this unforeseen edicts from above.
I know from my area, a lot of paddy was purchased by the state at the guaranteed prices from the last harvest, as the market price was lower. However some of the paddy was substandard, due to moisture levels being higher and were purchased not having regard to basic norms for storage. Now 70,000 Tons of paddy will be released from these stores, to be converted to 45,000 Tons of rice. This will then be issued to the market. I dread to think how much paddy will have to be thrown away due to substandard that may not even be good enough for animal feed, as that is what happens when the paddy spoils it ends up in Chicken Feed.

By imposing price controls on the most popular varieties of rice, the best quality of these will go underground, or the millers will not produce them. In my case, there is no incentive for me to spend the extra money, get the paddy par boiled to a high standard, by a neighbor, so I can sell quality Nadu, that tastes good, and sell at a loss for the Govt regulated Rs60/- a kg. Especially these days with wet weather, sun drying this is out of the question, and the risks associated with getting the required quality are not worth taking when losses result in so doing.

It is typical of leaders who don’t understand supply and demand, who try to control prices and thereby reduce the choice to the consumer, and put the producer in jeopardy, when in fact their whole focus should be to improve productivity, which helps both producer and consumer. A government whose slogans are “rata hadamu, api wawamu” should take heed from a farmer, and not from price controls, that further impoverish the retailer and producer with the real culprit the big miller again set to cash in from the failure to issue paddy from the stores earlier. Why wait till now when prices began rising a month ago, due to non release of paddy stocks by Govt.

Increasing the Nation’s Milk Production

I have read so many recent articles about the effort to increase Milk production in SL and if one were to believe what is published one would be very optimistic about its future. The reality however yet again is somewhat different. Why is it that we in SL have so many schemes and so much talk, with very little action. There was an article about the NLDB doubling their milk production within 3 months (the three months are long gone since the article was published) with the import of higher yielding milk cows and assistance from Israel. Then there was the article about a prominent politician who had set up a company to increase milk production, while engaging in giving skills to the youth to obtain self employment by giving them loans to get the cows and get them to produce the milk. This was headed by a Managing Director who had previously worked in the largest dairy farm in Saudi. None of these have come to fruition or even commenced. There is no shame in lying!!!

It is no surprise then that private sector ventures, ‘petro lanka’ in Mirigama, by a Sri Lankan who returned from overseas and set up his own dairy, and then the multinational Nestle which has expanded in the North and East by setting up new chilling centers are the ones making real positive contributions in this regard. Additionally LMF a company quoted in the CSE (Colombo Stock Exchange) raised Rs700M by way of a rights issue to expand their already huge dairy business. It goes to show that all these government initiatives just seem to be hot air to get some airtime or press time, with no real teeth to it.

The poor milk farmer, and I count myself as one them is left to struggle through the mire literally with little real help to improve productivity and revenue in this genuinely honorable goal of becoming less dependent on imported milk products.
Rich countries use the implantation of female embryos to produce good quality female calves, and this is justifiable bearing in mind their high yielding cows. In our small way we must get the sexing machines that are now available and used in other countries to sex the sperm, so that when AI is used (artificial insemination) we have a greater chance of a female calf, so as to increase the population of milk producing animals as compared with the male calves that end up being killed.

Without just making statements, the Govt should guarantee a minimum price for milk, like Rs50/kg so as to encourage new and existing farmers to expand and improve, rather than close down and give up as it is not cost effective. Most of all, the quality of the animals to suit the climate, and targeted education of the farmer in proper methods of fodder, feeding, milking and care are desperately needed.

Rice and Milk, perception, production, consumption, storage and waste

I rarely email or use my Facebook, so the longest absence from any web entries was just an unplanned occurrence. I hope I will have the time to keep up. Life goes on from one eventful day to the next, where there is never a dull moment. The unexpected always happens that is the certainty of life, especially down on the farm and fields.

It rained almost all day here on the farm in Godagama, while I desperately need the rain in Hingurakgoda, where I am preparing the paddy fields for sowing, and there has only been a few droplets there. It was a misery plucking the king coconuts in the rain as one has to climb the trees, there being no other way to cut the bunches, and bring them safely down. Fortunately the coconuts were plucked yesterday, though as it is out of season the number on the trees are less than half the usual, so with even prices around 75% higher than average, the total revenue is still lower.

A cow gave birth to a male calf in the early hours of the morning; Sagara only said yesterday, that one would be born today, on Poya. The mother is not a great milker, and so a few more bottles is not something to crow about when I get Rs29 per kg which is less than the cost (that is the way the milk is measured and amounts to about a liter) However hard we try to wish otherwise, the fact is 98% of male calves born in SL end up eventually as food. This brings me to another related point, where I was associated in a project to implant female embryos in cattle to ensure that female calves dominate.


Despite my having a shop on the farm, it is like pulling teeth to convince the locals to buy fresh milk, when they prefer the NZ dried powdered milks, which are better marketed. Sometimes it is an effort to take the milk to the collecting center in the mornings, so I prefer to give the unsold milk to the dogs, as a protein supplement.

The end result of the persistent rain is that weeds take over the area faster than we know how to control it, and the practical problems of weed control surface when one does not wish to use any weed killers.

Wherever I go I see the paddy lands being prepared or sown, this is the season which expects the bumper harvest if all conditions are right, and many a livelihood depends on it, though more and more have determined that they cannot survive merely by being rice farmers, and have to either supplement their incomes or actually pursue other vocations, merely allowing a friend or relative to cultivate their tiny plots to provide a portion of their rice consumption. The price of rice that had fallen to unheard of levels lately have begun to climb, but I suspect that this is just a ploy by the millers to control the market after they have purchased all the paddy. The government stores in the meantime are full of paddy, which they have yet to release to the millers, but which are also in the meantime rotting due to the bad practices of purchase and storing paddy with higher than recommended moisture content. This results in the paddy getting spoilt and not fit for human consumption. Despite the bumper harvest this waste will create a shortage, bump up the price and the millers who hold the keys to the price, yet again call the shots. The state in the meantime loses, when they could theoretically have profited.

The Dilemma in agriculture that we have yet to resolve and no one addresses

The economical agricultural unit is changing rapidly due to the multi phased changes in our society. They range from a severe shortage of labor prepared to work in agriculture, with few young people even contemplating farming, to changes in demographics, and expectations, as a result of education, and increased standards of living. As usual the policy makers will stumble on the new reality, while the politicians are still living in a dream world thinking the majority of our people are farmers, when only the majority are rural dwellers, who are nothing but kitchen gardeners as they have a small plot of land to play with and most of them who grow paddy get an added bonus called a fertilizer subsidy, most of which goes down the river. These rural dwellers earn less than 10% of their household income from agriculture, the rest being from their main job, as a teacher, bureaucrat, bus driver or such like.

Once our policy planners realize the inevitable, it is will be too late to make structural changes that are sorely needed to improve the productivity of the land which is the intention, but with no one actually being able to effect this sea change.

I farm about 6 acres of rice fields, and the government spends about Rs90,000 more than what I pay for my fertilizer, per season, on the fertilizer, which is all imported from the Middle East or CIS countries, with hard currency. That is Rs180,000 a year. That is staggering as, that is all I need just once, to use earth moving equipment to drastically improve the size of the fields and level them off, so that I can use four wheel tractors, and large combined harvesters, which would cut the cost of my production by over 40%. Additionally the larger fields will yield at least another half to an acre of cultivable land that currently is part of the bunds that separate the smaller fields. This once off structural improvement to the land will yield a permanent benefit.

What I envisage happening in the future is if this improvement takes place, then the land can be cultivated by professional tenant farmers, who will pay a rental based on the land area, to the owner, which will satisfy both parties, and solve the labor shortage issues by use of mechanical and hitec equipment, which is only economical in a larger scale operation. The government should therefore begin an experiment in offering credits for the use of earth moving equipment to improve the scale of fields, in lieu of the subsidy, as it will be a no lose proposition. The utterly useless use of two wheeled tractors can then be eliminated and larger scale farming, starting with paddy cultivation, and then moving into other areas can then commence earnestly and efficiently towards meeting all food production targets.

What I am afraid of again this time round is that as Sri Lanka will be self sufficient in Rice production this year, due to additional lands in the North and East coming under the plough, that the urgency of making this structural change will disappear once again into the ether. Don't forget, self sufficiency and productivity are mutually exclusive concepts and should not be mixed or confused. The resulting drops in the price of paddy will only make the smaller farmer more alienated and driven to suicide, instead of moving in the direction I propose, where he will be given an option arising from a productivity improvement to either farm or rent out his land, and pursue a more productive vocation.

Soursop known locally as "Katu Atha"

A MATURE FRUIT WEIGHING ABOUT A KILO JUST PLUCKED NEEDS ABOUT 3 DAYS TO RIPEN
Sour sop with a Latin name of Annona muricata has suddenly hit the news lately due to the claims that it is 1000 times stronger than Chemotherapy for cancer patients and cancer fighting agents.

I am being inundated with requests for this fruit, which I sell for Rs100 each, but which I find difficult to grow. I have about 8 trees and only two actually produce any fruit. I am told that sometimes these trees don't have any fruit for a while. I also have two trees in Polonnaruwa which have yet to fruit.

I prefer to eat it as a drink which is made by liquidizing the fruit pieces after removing all the seeds. One of the common mistakes made is that people pluck the fruit before it is mature, and therefore it does not ripen well. The reason for this is that the period it stays mature is so short, perhaps three or four days on a tree before it becomes black in places and begins to spoil. It is impossible to sell a fruit that looks spoilt, though the spoilt parts can be cut out as the rest actually taste better, because it has fully ripened on the tree. This rule of thumb holds true for most fruit and in Sri Lanka due to the lack of refrigerated transport, the tendency with all fruit is to pluck prematurely.


It is important that tissue culture is done on the good bearing Sour sop trees, and new plants are available in order to get consistent planting material to ensure a good yield. As usual the pundits come up with you must grow a whole area with these trees, but I have yet to be able to source good and reliable planting material, something which we are currently woefully lacking in for all types of fruit trees.




This is an added reminder that in order for us to maximize our potential for increasing our supply of fruit, the planting material is of the utmost importance as one does not have the luxury to experiment as these trees and in the case of the above take about 4 years to properly fruit.