I had a hearty laugh at these boffins
talking about agriculture, who know NOTHING about it and persist in
pontificating about it, see link:
They are pandering to a bunch of
exporters who are looking to the Govt. to help them along the way, without
looking at WHY WHY WHY there is NOT enough production of quality to meet the
demands of the marketplace, and are talking JACK SHIT about lack of refrigerated transportation
etc. These exporters are looking to the Govt. to help in providing refrigerated storage to keep items longer, but don't look at the reason why farmers are NOT producing more, when prices are so favorable, and demand is inexhaustible a dream for an efficient producer!
Yes they are all issues, but let us
first conquer the basics, before we move up the ladder of sophistication. It is
about the non-use of agricultural lands for any sort of agriculture. If you ask
the owners of the land, they say it is due to it being uneconomic, as the
owners themselves are able to supplement their income in far more lucrative
ways.
FACT: “THOSE WITH ARABLE LAND DON’T
FIND IT ECONOMICAL TO USE IT”
Then you come to the next segment of
people, namely those who qualify from University with Agricultural Degrees.
They simply don’t have the land, and an Agricultural Lending Institution, that
is willing to lend to them to for Agricultural purposes.
So FACT: “THOSE WITH KNOWLEDGE AND DESIRE
TO FARM DO NOT HAVE THE LAND” and especially in Sri Lanka’s context
today, as land is relatively expensive, and is constantly rising in value, is
used as a hugely wasteful tool of investment, especially amongst the private
personal sector, where people invest in land as a hedge against inflation, and
returns on saving are absurdly low, due to the Banks insisting on high spreads.
So how do we solve this simple problem?
Simple. IMMEDIATELY pass legislation that assures the owners of land that they
will NEVER lose their titles, and permit them to rent their land, or FORCE if
necessary, to rent for minimum of three years, land at nominal rates of say Rs 25,000
per acre per annum in the Colombo District, and less elsewhere for those who
wish to farm them.
In my 25 minute drive to work from
Godagama to Biyagama, today, I must have passed 1,000 acres of paddy land that
is never farmed, that under this proposal could be taken up by large scale
farming using the latest techniques by skilled and knowledgeable farmers, they
can employ these graduates to do the work!
Upon inspection of the land referred to
as “PURAN KUMBURU”, they currently get waterlogged due to excessive rains. This
is primarily because the land on high ground has been converted from coconut
and rubber estates to housing developments due to the increasing land prices
and demand for housing land. Therefore there is run-off to the paddy fields.
This can easily be managed by a intelligent system of canals that catch this
water, and feed it to small lakes and finally onto the rivers that carry this
run-off to the sea.
This way, only the required water can be
directed into the fields, and unless there is a project to farm all the land in
a field, as there many be 100 owners of the land on one low lying field of 150
acres, then it would make economical sense to give this to a farmer who will
use ALL the new techniques of agriculture, the big tractors and harvesters, to
work the land for THREE CROPS, where NOT
ONE CROP currently is grown. JUST THINK ABOUT IT!
GOD has blessed this Country, with the
possibility of growing three crops of paddy for a year, and we have NOT even
attempted to grow one, as it is NOT economical for the owner alone to do it. It
is the job of the Govt. to satisfy ALL the stakeholders, while immediately
permitting largescale agriculture, in the heart of the Colombo District, that
can even grow crops for export direct from the field to the airport, due to
proximity to catch the fresh food market in the Middle East by air if
necessary.
If you look at the complaints of the
exporters with no produce for export due to the Tourism industry grabbing a
share of the pie, all these problems of demand, with NO SUPPLY can easily be
solved.
I was asking my driver the rhetorical question
this morning, as to why our Politicians cannot think enough to pass legislation
to enable this simple process to take its course over time and LISTEN TO HIS SIMPLE
EXPLANATION
“The Politicians DO NOT think of the Country
as a whole, and how any legislation can benefit this Country. They have NO stake
in that benefit. They only have a stake to benefit a few of their supporters or
paymasters in bribes and such like, so they can make some money, by sharing in a
construction contract or similar. It has never occurred to them that we can produce
more food, and help Sri Lanka export surplus! They don’t see what you see when you
look out of the window. They don’t see dollar signs when they see empty paddy land,
unless of course they find a way to permit them to fill this low lying land, so
they can make get a cut from the enhanced land value on filling a completely environmentally disastrous option, a favorite of politicians intent on merely making money, no matter how!”
"They cannot see fruit, vegetables, paddy or even
grass for cattle in their sights!”
HOW TRUE!
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