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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.