After a tumultuous period where we had unprecedented rains, and many paddy fields were rendered useless, and further the rain that came once again, put paid to a good harvest. The latter was as a result of the flowering period being disrupted by rain that prevented the paddy seed from forming. Farmers therefore were left in the lurch.I am hoping ...
Two of my cows in Godagama, Meegoda have just calved. The man who takes care of the cattle, decided to play a game of passive aggressive behavior against the supervisor and decided not to milk the cows. That is a serious problem as cows that are bred for milking must be milked, preferably twice daily, as otherwise they could ...
There is a lull now in the battle for crates. Bukki Johnston is now planning his next move in the New Year. He has got burnt and he is angry. I believe he must go back to basics and find out why his so called ‘Trader Mafia’ are reacting this way. As I suggested the Govt. must order a ...
There is so much pontificating words written about sustainable agriculture and I believe very little of that comes directly from someone who earns 100% of his income from existing agriculture, sustainable or not.Why is that? The person who is a full time farmer cannot see the practical side of the concept as he cannot contemplate doing without many of the ...
I was in conversation with some elders recently about the whole land reform process in the early seventies, where each couple were restricted to 50 acres of land, and the excess taken over by the state. In fact the veritable World Bank had advised that due to the excessively unproductive performance of the estates of a few thousand wealthy ...
A MATURE FRUIT WEIGHING ABOUT A KILO JUST PLUCKED NEEDS ABOUT 3 DAYS TO RIPENSour 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 in
PARADISE FARM, KITULGALA - PEPPER READY TO HARVEST AND TAKEN IN ITS RAW FORM NOW - The purest form of a quality productI have recently gone to an organic farm where I have been a director for over 14 years now, and which has not made a profit in even one of them. It is in Kitulgala and is in ...
It was barely two months ago when the farmers were screaming blue murder that they had surplus vegetables that they could not sell. Tomato was rotting on the trees too costly to pluck. Now tomato is Rs300/kg at retail! So what gives?Tomato was always transported in boxes to prevent being squashed so the crate law does not impact them ...
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 resul
The mess our agriculture is in due to the populist agenda that fools the peopleI speak with considerable experience having been mired in both dry zone and wet zone agriculture for the past 6 years and being the only person in Sri Lanka who farms at the same minimal peasant allotment
I was asked why I was so harsh on the Divi Neguma program. It is simple. It was designed by fools who can’t think beyond their noses. They have fooled everyone for what? Let us just take an example of the two aspects of farming. One by those engaged in it for a living, the GOVIYA! And the other the ...
It is hardly surprising that battle lines are drawn on the enforcement of the Plastic Crate transportation edict. I reported this a few days ago (8th December) in my previous blog entry that it was about to erupt. The government should have known better. You cannot change a lifetime of habit by an edict. It may take about 2 ...
It was reported a short while ago today, April 18th 2012, that the Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture, KA Sakalasooriya, has announced the creation of four zones for export. One in each of Mannar for growth of Keeri Samba, Hambantota for growing red rice, (presumably long grain) and Polonnaruwa and Anuradhapura for growing BG 357 a variety of white ...
as appeared in Colombo Telegraph of Dec 17th 2013Solving Kidney Disease In Dry ZoneBy Chandre Dharmawardana -Prof. Chandre DharmawardanaReverse osmosis, and bio-scavengers for cleaning the water and soil in areas affected by Kidney diseaseWhen kidney disease of uncertain origin (CKDU) appeared in the North-central province in the mid-1990s, some commentators hastened to claim that this was bio-terrorism associated with the ...
Sri Lanka grows big onions only seasonally and harvests 90% of its local production in the months August to October, before the October rains. Therefore the Government in order to help the local onion producer had slapped an import levy of Rs50/kg in August satisfying the local farmers as imports would create an oversupply.Those traders who knew about the import ...
I do not wish to go into detail, but the link below will take you to a new item, that explains the wonder food, that we know as DEL and the different ways of cooking it in addition to how we prepare it at home here in Sri Lanka.So let us see how we can promote the growth of this ...
Ratmale tank a month ago before the rains that made it spill We spend Rs50B in a fertilizer subsidy using imported inorganic toxic fertilizer. I challenge the government to reduce the subsidy in half by increasing the cost of fertilizer and instead use the Rs25B saved to do the following. There are over 10,000 tanks that need serious renovation, and ...
In today’s (3rd October 2012) Daily News it was reported that subsequent to the Yala Season harvest only 65 Tonnes of paddy have been purchased by the PMB from the Polonnaruwa District. There is no reason given as to why this amount is so low. Is it because the farmers just had no surplus paddy to sell the state? No ...
People in countries and states where water is scarce, know and practice the art of conserving and careful use of this scarce commodity. People are very used to going to great lengths to use as little as possible for their daily needs. Almost all homes in those countries have water meters and people are charged under different bases for water ...
Over the years, seven and a half, to be exact I must have bought at least 100 ‘Kimbula udalu thalayas’ for my agricultural needs. If one goes into the web site of Chillington, which is manufactured in the West Midlands in the UK, there is a size and shape of Mammoty just for the Sri Lankan market. I think ...
