Caring intervention brings results

DESPITE the Opposition's disinformation mill working almost overnight to tarnish the progressive and caring image of the Government, the indications are that the country will be in for a bumper Maha paddy harvest. In fact it is described as the country's biggest Maha paddy harvest, so far.

The reasons attributed to this success are the agricultural policies of the Government which are proving doubly effective.

Prime among these policies is the decision to provide our farmers with a fertilizer subsidy which has gone a long way towards de-escalating their production costs.

Secondly, a decision has been taken to make full use of abandoned paddy land. Thus, nearly 80 per cent of abandoned paddy land in the Western Province has been put to good use.

It is plain to see that it is the State's interventionist role - in a positive sense, of course - that has brought about these rich and abundant dividends for the farmer and the people.

Besides the decision to provide a fertilizer subsidy for the farmer, the Agriculture Ministry, we note, has also taken the praiseworthy step of establishing Paddy Purchasing Centres in the areas where it matters most, to buy the precious produce of the farmer at reasonable prices.

We learn that in the Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa districts alone some 400 Paddy Purchasing Centres have been established.

We wish to commend the State for these far-sighted measures which would finally work to the good of all. Agriculture, as is known, has been suffering benign neglect over the years on account of low priority being attached to this vital sector of the economy.

Right along, the State could have intervened to stem the rot, but this was not to be because the State of those times simply did not believe in the rejuvenation of agriculture.

As a result, more and more potential farmers - particularly among the young- didn't see any possibilities in the agricultural sector. Small wonder that they abandoned the paddy fields in increasing numbers for the chimerical shimmer of the big city, ending bitterly disappointed in the quest for the big bucks.

Now the UPFA Government has brought the agricultural sector back into contention as one of the principal pillars of the country's economy. The secret of their success is positive and caring intervention in the sector, with decreasing reliance on the price mechanism to deliver the goods.

Until the UPFA Government arrived on the scene, governments seemed to rely on deceptive quick fixes to turn the economy around. Thus, the previous UNP Government relied heavily on market forces to even rectify anomalies in the paddy fields.

The decision had to be taken to give the farmer a better deal by purchasing his produce at reasonable prices but this was overlooked, because everything was measured in terms of only greenbacks.

It could be thus seen that simplistic thinking has been a bane of this country. It is only through the empowerment of the poor that poverty could be alleviated. Besides, we need to strengthen the hands of the farmer in his dealings with middlemen and other exploiters and we are glad that successful efforts are being made in this direction.