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. ...
First there was the direction for the umpteenth time from Johnston Fernando that from December 11th, that is the day after this Saturday, Poya anyone caught transporting fruit and vegetable in bags will be prosecuted using the full force of the law. Then there was the usual off the charts saying from the Prime Minister that we should ban ...
Judging from the first to harvest paddy this season, namely the Ampara District and to some extent the Kurunegala District farmers, the former do it on a large scale and therefore have to dispose of their harvest as soon as it is dried and packed. The Kurunegala farmers on the other hand are usually those with smaller plots, and ...
One of the great tragedies of nutrition in Sri Lanka is the lack of appreciation for both the King Coconut (Thambili – some friends call me thambili!) and Coconut (Kurumba) water as a liquid refreshment. If one google’s this you can find numerous references as to its incredible powers over ailments and wellness.(e.g reference - http://www.nutrition-and-you.com/coconut-water.html) I have a ...
A new Bill will be presented in Parliament shortly to enforce ‘a Certificate of Conformity’ from the Department of Agriculture of ALL seeds sold in the Island. It will therefore be forbidden by law (liable to be prosecuted for non compliance) if anyone person, retailer or company sells seeds without such approval. The reason perceived by the State in ...
The crate rule is coming round to the next installment and it seems the government is trying to placate the farmers by giving them veiled subsidies, fooling them with free plastic crates to farmer organizations, which I have already noted as being a very bad precedent, and absolutely counter-productive. They are aiming their fire power on the transport mafia, ...
The small people like us who go shopping for vegetables ( I am still in crutches) will know how low the price of Tomato has fallen to. While it is not that cheap at Food City, it is down to Rs20 if I buy a kilo or more at the Pola.So now I can have tomato soup and tomato with ...
My previous blog entries have covered the practical aspects of this rule, and why it is that it will not work in the Sri Lankan context unless it is tied in with a host of allied initiatives, when worked together will improve the quality of the food we eat and reduce the waste, from the farmers fields to the dinner ...
The arguments carry on and it is a highly politicized and emotive subject. Bearing in mind that Sri Lanka is shortly to assume a GNP per capita of US$4000 (target 2015) that is at current exchange rates Rs500,000 for every man woman and child in this country of over 20million we must take a different and futuristic view. The politicians ...
A fictional story though based on the real world tale of a successful miller. Once upon a time a man had a vision of making a lot of money, taking advantage of the disunity and lack of vision of the farmers, to buy paddy at rock bottom prices from the farmers and sell rice to the retailers at huge profit ...
I have maintained that there is no one in the policy making bodies who understands farming and its practices and practicalities. Bureaucrats and Ministers who own land, farmed by others think they know what the real problems are. This is not like running a plantation, this is a hand to mouth existence and lying to them merely makes the liar ...
There is no profit in growing paddy on an acreage that is less than 5 acres which comprise, 70% of the paddy land grown today. So REMEMBER the rice we eat is grown by people making a sacrifice!!! For no gain, not even enough to pay for a daily wage of Rs200. So what does the future hold? I spent ...
From Ceylon Today 16 Oct 2014 Govt's agriculture policy, cause of CKD –Academics By Ravi Ladduwahetty three frontline university scientific experts blamed the government's agricultural policy as the cause for the Chronic Kidney disease which has engulfed the North Central Province and other geographical expanses of Sri Lanka.They attributed the use of excess and subsidized fertilizer as the cause, which ...
I just had a chat on the phone with my fellow neighboring farmers in the Hingurakgoda area and they tell me a new tale out of Alice in Wonderland. So I just repeat what I heard and the reader should determine its likelihood, but the farmers firmly believe this story, which when it passes from one mouth to the ...
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 ...
The Miller’s tale in my previous blog entry illustrated quite clearly, that the Miller cannot be unseated by Government intervention, unless the state wishes to get further into a hole to help the farmer. As it is they are in the Rs50B fertilizer subsidy hole not to help the farmer as I have amply illustrated, but to get the farmer ...
In today’s (April 17th 2012) Daily News, Mr MABD Bandaranayake, Sec to the Provincial Agriculture Ministry of Wyamba told farmers who were struggling to get a price for their produce, who were contemplating changing to Tobacco cultivation, and I quote, “Farmers will not get the fertilizer subsidy provided to them by the government, if they start tobacco cultivation. Farmers should ...
I was taken to task by a one advocating export of surpluses by my criticism in yesterday’s blog entry about the efforts of the agricultural department to export varieties of rice. I know I was rather harsh on the Secretary to the Ministry, who in the past would have initiated a common sense approach, but in the current heavily politicized ...
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. ...
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 ...
