New Agriculture

In an like today when the international economy is controlled by the policies of financial institutions such as the ‘world bank’ etc . as determined by the international trade forces, we have to seek the help of agriculture even today as was done in the past in order to achieve the flexibility of the economy and to ensure the identity of

traditional culture of a small country like ours. Our staple food is rise. Attempts to be self-sufficient in rice has been our accepted policy from the time of our ancient kings. This policy should be modified in a timely and thoughtful manner to suit the political, economic and social forces. That change form time to time. We should be determined to have our agriculture policy adapted in an optimistic way in terms of the open-economy system which is now almost internationally accepted. Paddy field is the centerpiece of sri lankan Economy –S.W.R.D.Bandaranayake.
The problem of agriculture development in sri lanka is the problem of careful conservation and proper utilization of resources. King parakramabahu the great who quite rationally identified this problem, makes the following observations addressing his ministers and other functionaries.

Scientific and Technological

· Provision for crop specialization in accordance with climatic, weather and other physical conditions in the respective agricultural zones. (Concept of comparative advantage in agriculture)
· Systematic and environment-friendly land resource utilization.
· Efficient water management and irrigation discipline.
· Introduction of farming and cropping systems based on cost-benefit considerations, accordingly, agriculture could be made an attractive vocation with increase in income as an economic activity.
· Reduction in cost of production and increase in income and profit maximization.
· Sustainable agriculture through proper utilization of resources and practical realization of this by farmers.

Maize,Soyabens, and Other Grains

The paddy, other Grains and pulses production/Promotion team undertook several field programmes for the promotion of maize, soybeans etc. and were able to achieve commendable results during 1997. This included the encouragement of and facilitation of Farmer companies to supply these grains to the ‘’Thriposha’’ Project of the Ministry of Health. Under this arrangement the Huruluwewa Farmer Company supplied MT 700 of soya beans in 1996 to the Project. This arrangement has been expanded to supply MT 4000 of maize and MT3600 of soybeans to the ‘’Thriposha’’ in 1998 by two Farmer companies of Huruluwewa and Dambulla jointly. These Farmer companies have commenced demonstration plots to grow sorghum, pigeonpea and sun flower as well.
Maize is becoming an increasingly important crop in he Lowland cropping systems as well as in the Uplands. It is reported that in 1995 Sri lanka produced 66,500mt which has now declined to approximately 38,999mt
Maize can be considered both as supplementary food source for both low income families in the country as well as feed source for the livestock sector. Where it contributes 30-35 per cent of the livestock feed formulation. Furthermore, it is also becoming and increasingly important crop, as boiled green cobs which has become popular with the urban population as well
With the increasing development of the livestock sector a large quantity of maize is presently being imported which well have to be produced locally. In 1994 a total of 84,824mt of maize worth Rs.587. million was imported and in 1995 the quantity imported was 80,058mt worth Rs.635 million.
The average maize yield is 1408 kg per ha. (Maha-rainfed) which the Department of Agriculture intends to increase to 2260 kg. per Ha by the year 2005 through the process of introducing appropriate technologies to farmers. At the same time it is intended to increase the average yield of maize during the Yala season with supplementary irrigation to 4.5mt per ha.
Accordingly the planned production for maze for 1998 is 91.500mt which will be increased to 181.000mt by the year 2005. This would more than off set the requirement of maize within country.
Several Programmes have been instituted to increase the production of other grains and pulses crops such as Sorghum, Soybean, Pigeonpea, Kurakkan, and Groundnuts.

Chillies and Big Onion

chille
Chilies and Big Onions are two other food crops which have drawn special attention of paddy, Other Grains and Pulses, Crops Production/Promotion Team. The production, pricing and availability of these two crops have been the subject of political dialogue and agitation which at time have led to very explosive situations. These two crops therefore have been highly emphasized by the Hon. Minister of Agriculture and lands in the development programme of the ministry.

Chillie is an indispensable condiment in the Sri Lanka diet. It ranks high among our cash crops. It is a labour intensive crop, and provides direct employment to about 350 man days per ha. With disturbances in major production area in the North, the expansion of the crop in non-traditional areas such as Mahaweli System H, Matale, polonnaruwa and Kurunegala has grown tremendously.
Declining production and instability in production of chilies have been observed in the recent past. Increasing cost of production and declining yields are largely due to pests and disease incidences and poor management practices. As a result, substantial proportion of the requirement has been imported from other countries. Miscalculation and incorrect timing of imports often caused drastic price fluctuations affecting both producers and consumers.

.....chillie......

Since Srilanka has the potential to expand chillie cultivation over and above the present levels, the Team formulated a programme for the extensive Cultivation of chilies by increasing the cultivated extent and increasing yield per unit area. There are prospects to increase chillies extent in Maha under agro-wells and well-drained paddy fields with supplementary irrigation.
The chillies production in mahaweli be 17,250mt in 1998 and 27,110mt in the year 2005 and yala production well be 11,000mt in 1998 and 24,000mt in 2005. Current average yield of chille is 1,184kg/ha and this well be increased up to 1,450kg/ha by year 2005 following the planned strategies.
Since the DOA produces only basic seeds, private sector seed producers will be encouraged to produce high quality seed. In addition, farmers will be educated to produce quality seed(own seed)
Tow strategies to increase production are as follows=
I. Promote cultivation under agro-well(minimum 0.2 ha per well) during Maha and well drained paddy fields during late Maha. Extension staff will identify areas and yayaas in Anuradhapura, monaragala, Kurunegala and identified major irrigation schemes.
II. Following action will be taken to increase productivity per unit area in all major irrigation schemes.
a. Organize farmers on yaya basis through farmer organizations for collective action
b. Early issue of water in yala
c. April planting in Yala and avoid late planting
d. Educate farmers on proper pesticide use.
Extension staff with the relevant agencies such as Dept. of Agrarian Services, Agriculture Development Authority and Farmer Organizations well be taking following action to promote green chillie production especially in the zone districts.
a. Initiate home garden chillie production especially in urban areas.
b. Establish nurseries at each Govi Sevana to sell seedlings for small scale green Chillie producers.

.......Big Onions.......

Big Onions is an indispensable condiment in the Sri Lanka diet. A remarkable increase in extent was recorded early nineties. However, a declining trend in extent cultivated can be seen in recent past mainly due to instability in price. Inadequate marketing facilities, non availability of quality seeds and problem of storage. Miscalculation and incorrect timing of import of big onions caused drastic price fluctuations in the market affecting the growers.
In drawing up production plans, increasing the cultivated area and increasing per ha. Yields (and thereby bringing the cost of production down) were envisaged. Present cost of cultivation of Big onions is Rs: 97.022 per ha. With the present yield, the costs of production work out Rs: 8.82 per kg. Big onion yields are expected to be increased upto kg 14,000 per ha by 2002 and this would result in accost of production of Rs, 7.24 by 2002, which is 11 percent reduction over the present figure.
Per capita consumption of big onion seems to be determined jointly with Red onion consumption. However, the per capita consumption of big onion is assumed as 5.4kh/year.
Since sri lanka has the potential to expand Big onion cultivation over and above the present levels, the Team formulated a programme for the extensive cultivation of big onion in Sri Lanka.
There is scope to increase the cultivated extent during Yala in order to narrow down the big gap between domestic requirement and local production. However, strong supportive programmes have to be implemented to encourage storage, local seed production and discourage imports during harvesting period.
Importation of quality seed materials specially from India is required to achieve the projected production. Current policies of the Indian Government do not allow seed import to sri lanka. Thus strong support to produce Big onion seeds locally is required. It is planned to produce 3,000 kg of seed locally in 1998and this will be increased up to 15,000 kg in 2005. It is expected to clear the seed importation barriers as soon as possible with inter-governmental negotiations.
More than 90% of the seed requirement is imported to the country from India. Lack of a legitimate system of importing seed from India has often resulted in the poor quality of seeds available in the open market and as a consequence production of big onion Sri Lanka is greatly hampered.


Following action will be taken to ensure the supply of quality seed for planting.

I. Negotiate with Indian Government to import quality seeds for planting.
II. Encourage farmers to increase local seed production(6% of requirement in 1997to 26%in 2005) using appropriate technology,
III. Seed production in poly-tunnels in Nuwara Eliya as well as Matale and Kurunegala .
IV. Farmer training programme to produce quality of seed .
.......ONION.....

I. Establishment of yaya demonstrations (2 ha each) in major producing districts with:

· Suitable varieties
· Improved cultural practices
· Balanced fertilizer application based on soil test (organic and inorganic fertilizer)
II. Providing technical and financial assistance for small, medium and large scale storage in dambulla and Mahaweli ‘’H’’ areas:
· Small scale(cottage level) * farm product
· Medium scale *5-10 tone
· Large scale * About 100 tone

III. Extension staff will identity suitable areas for off season cultivation of big onion.
IV. Adoptive research programme in 50 locations at Nuwara Eliya and Badulla districts will be launched.

Vegetables and Potato Production/Promotion Team

The mission of the team is to ensure the production of national requirements of vegetables and potato through an annual targeted production programme, with the final objectives of enhancing farmer income and increased per capita consumption while meeting the nutritional requirements and export demand, and provide employment through agro-based industries.

Vegetable production programme.

Under this programme, priority is given to increase the production of 21 vegetable crops. The crops include up-country vegetables(beans, tomato, carrot, leeks, capsicum, cabbage, beet-root and radish), low –country vegetable ( brinjal, okra, bitter gourd, snakegourd, luffa, red pumpkin, cucumber, ash plantain and leafy, vegetables)and root and tuber crops (sweet potato, cassava, etc).
Potato production programme

Under this programme, major emohasis is given to reduce the cost of production of potato through increasing productivity and expanding the local seed production by use of tissue-cultured production programme.

Food Technology and Post Harvest Technology

Paddy, Grains and Pulses Production/Promotion Team has formed a working Group under its umbrella to promote and develop appropriate technologies for the processing and value addition of the agricultural products. This Group has inaugurated several action research programmes and project to enhance the value of products such as paddy, maize and pigeonpea and process these products before introducing to the market (Annexure x)The Rice processing,Research Development Centre of the PMB at Anuradhapura, jointly with the food technology division of the DOA has undertaken a programme to produce instant food items of noodles, biscuits, bread etc. by using rice flour The MPCS at palugasdamana. In the Polonnaruwa District has formed a Farmer Company with about 2000 farmer shareholders to deal with processing of paddy into rice and flour and marketing these products on a forward contract basis Action would be taken in the future to develop thes activities through more modern technologies of transport, storage etc.
Paddy, Grains and Pulses Production/Promotion Team is also making arrangements, to organize Farmer Companies in the major agricultural areas of Kurunegala, Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Matale, Ampara, Badulla, Monaragala, and Hambantota, Two Farmer Companies of Huruluwewa and Dambulla have entered into a forward contract with the Ministry of Health to suppl maize and soybean requirements of the ‘’Thriposha’’ programme of that ministry. The shareholder members of these companies have been given a training on drying and storage of these products to ensure the quality and standard required by the ‘’ Thriposha’’ stipulations. Farmers in the Minipe scheme have been given a training on appropriate harvesting, threshing and rice cleaning technologies to ensure quality and standard of rice to be marketed.
Dambulla Farmer Company has commenced a programme of drying and storage of B Onion with a viwe to stock this product and release to the market at the appropriate season. The Ministry has also under taken several experiments on dehydration of vegetables and fruits and also the proper transport and storage of these products under the Perennial Crops Development Project. These action research programme would be continued under the Second Perennial Grop Deveiloment Project due to commence in 1998

Sri lankan Agriculture Today

In view of these realities to sri lanka ;s agricultural situation a major issue surfaces as to what have been the impact of the plans and programmes discussed in chapters 2 and 3 of this paper Taken together they do not seem to have contributed much towards a qualitative and structural transformations of sri lankan agriculture. Of course, one must remember that the Second 1958 and the Fifth Effort 1971/72 could not be fully operationalised due to many reasons, some of them being the political changes which adversely affected their implementation. It is possible to argue that situation would have been different if these efforts could have been fully operationalized.
It should be noted that the Mahaweli Development Programme of 1971 as well as the Accelerated Programme of 1978 and several programmes resulting from the Irrigation programme Review mentioned above attempted to change the traditional system of subsistence mono-crop farming into a profitable economic venture that could ensure an adequate income to the individual farmer and also a surplus for the nation . New Farming Systems, new cropping patterns with related agro-based enterprises and rural industries based on innovative organizational and institutional arrangements were proposed and some of them were operationalized in the settlement areas.
After the open market economic policies, a project designated Management of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) funded by USAID attempted to commercialize Mahaweli agriculture in system ‘B’ Under the Accelerated programme of 1978 several attempts were made to grow high value crops such as okra, cantaloupe melon, yellow onions, gherkins etc. On a large scale through contract growers in the Mahaweli systems. Several local Marketing firms in collaboration with some foreign Firms entered into forward contracts with out grower farmers. In the Mahaweli systems on the basis of pre-arranged and negotiated pricing and marketing arrangements. Such crops were grown in paddy fields as a means of diversification particularly during the lean season. The Accelerated programme also facilitated the establishment of rice milling and processing, livestock development and production of yoghurt and a few other enterprises. Through these arrangements, there was emerging a some kind of trend to move towards commercialization of agriculture.
After nearly twenty five years of operation and acceleration is Mahaweli Agriculture and ‘’settlement Agriculture’ in general capable of withstanding the pressures and challenges of an open market economy and be sustainable in a global context?
Several studies and surveys conducted by the Ministry have revealed that despite different efforts over the fifty year after Independence, Sri lanka‘s agriculture sector is not encouraging even today. Over the last decade, the growth rate in the sector remained at a very low level of 2% annually or amounting to half of the national average.
‘’Sri lanka’s non-plantation agriculture sector, referred to as the domestic food production sector, is now at a ‘’cross-roads’’ with no visible signs of improvement. The sector has lost its momentum over the last 10-15 years. This is reflected in key indicators such as, per acre yield of crops, total annual output, intensity of use of irrigated lands, farm family income and employment. During this period the prices of all major production inputs in agriculture, particularly that of labour and machinery , have risen several fold resulting in a sharp escalation of farmer’s production cost. The farmgate prices of agriculture produce, however, have not kept pace with the rising costs of production. Consequently , there has been a gradual reduction in returns to the producer.
Furthermore, the prices of most domestically produced agricultural commodities, in general, show a high volatility leading to wide income variations and uncertainties unfavorable to the producer. With the plateauing of domestic agricultural production. The country’s dependence on imported food, particularly wheat, has grown. The cost escalation in non traditional agricultural production has also adversely affected the international competitiveness of exports.

Sri lankan