New approach to accelerated agricultural development

Chandrasiri Nanayakkara

FERTILIZERS: Immediately after the budget proposals, fertilizers were distributed to paddy farmers all over the island because in almost all crop growing areas that was the time to apply basal dressing (mada-pohora) or the 1st dose of top dressing.

While appreciating the implementation of this heavy task by the Government it is also important to know the responses and reactions of the recipient farmers in this regard. The benefits are more than reducing about Rs. 2,000 per acre from the cost of production, according to the farmers.

"Under this scheme we have to get the fertilizer through local farmer organisation's recommendation and approved by the field officer of the Agrarian Services Department. Hence, we have to rally round the farmer organisation and work as a coherent group".

"The irrigation tank, distributary network and yaya belongs to all in common (public good) with individual holdings. All these components of the production system should be in proper order. The low-cost fertiliser initiative would catalyze to strengthen our farmer organisation and trigger off our cultivation activities working closely with field officers is done according to their instructions."

"We take cultivation decisions at the Kanna meeting and all the farmers contribute equally to maintain the system in a good form and work hard to achieve a higher yield and increased production".

Development

"Since the minimum purchasing price of paddy also increased, and with the re-establishment of Paddy Marketing Board a competitive market place should function. With reduced costs, better prices with assured markets, we will be able to rise from a poor income to a reasonably good income". "This will motivate and mobilise us, farmers and we feel we are not a neglected section of the society.

Hence, we contribute as much as the society expects from us for the development of agriculture. The development of agriculture is certainly the development and welfare of farmer and the entire rural population".

Opinions

The above opinions were made by the representative farmers, at a meeting of Advisory Panel on Agriculture held on December 14 at the Hector Kobbekaduwa Agrarian Research and Training Institute.

The Advisory Panel Discussion was held with the chairmanship of Minister for Agricultural Development, Chamal Rajapakse. The Minister of Agriculture, Environment, Maithripala Sirisena and Minister for Rural Enterprise, Social Service and Social Welfare Jagath Pushpakumara also participated.

Views highlighted

The above views of farmers highlight clearly the rationality and understanding of multiplier effect. The Government's initial injection through fertiliser subsidy will increase the farmer's income. This he may save as a part and spend the rest on buying goods and services from other sectors. The ultimate result is the increase in income in all sectors and finally it will be several times higher than the initial investment.

Thus a rupee invest in one activity in the production process (agriculture) multiplies its returns and the positive impacts to the economy and to the society will be much more.

Linkages

In addition this enhances backward and forward linkages with the other two sectors and stimulate them too. On the other hand, economies spend excessive amounts of foreign exchange to import consumption goods, (food) could divert these resources to import investment goods such as machinery etc.

According to farmers the revival of milling centres and other value added activities through agro-processing at rural level could create more employment for the youth.

This is the main reason why Mahinda Chintanaya interpreted that the money allocated to fertiliser distribution is not a subsidy but an investment to increase the farmer income (purchasing power) while increasing the production in the country.

The advisory panel comprises in addition to farmer representatives from major paddy cultivating districts, senior officers of the ministry and departments, researchers, university dons and the officers retired from the agriculture sector.

Fundamental goals

The discussion was focused to fulfill three fundamental goals. The agricultural development should be sustainable. It should increase the production qualitatively and quantitatively. The development activities should not tax the rural environment.

The production pathway is divided into twelve components and this was discussed considering their interrelations. The representing farmers surfaced the present problems and shortcoming. At the end the participants were able to make recommendations for the formulation of National Agricultural Policy and its Action Plans for various sub sectors.

a) Improved seeds and planting material:- Good seeds along with planting materials are indispensable for healthy and vigourous crops to give high yields.

Seed paddy is the most important one and it is produced and distributed by private sector farms, government farms and skilled farmers in these fields with the guidance and supervision of the Agriculture Department. More emphasis should be given to expand the seed paddy production through farmers.

Seed market

In the fruit and vegetable sector some seeds are imported and distributed by the private sector. To make the imported seed market competitive and search for new and adaptable varieties that suit our environments and are compatible with our tastes and preferences, the Agricultural Department should also import a percentage of seeds. The department should accelerate its programmes to produce hybrid seeds for local vegetables.

(b) Adoption of low cost agricultural practices. A main problem for export of agricultural produce is the high cost of production. Even, it is evident in the local market. For eg. Nuwaraeliya potato is expensive than the imported ones. Red chilli imported from India is cheaper than the local item.

One factor for this is high cost of crop management practices applied by the farmer and search for low cost and efficient practices. When recommending cultural practices the department should consider the gross margin of a crop rather than maximum production.

(c) Effective use of inorganic and organic fertilizer: The use of inorganic fertilizers and organic manures must go hand in hand. Inorganic fertilizers have many benefits. It is a quick response easy to use, but costly and residues cause pollution of waterways.

Organic manures

Organic manures are bulky when applied to the soil they enrich soil micro-organisms and other beneficial creatures, improves soil, retain moisture, make soil workable and release micro and macro nutrients slowly.

The promotion of artificial fertilizers with the 'green revolution' the farmers use to depend more on them and then there is an imbalance of using the two types and there is a need to rectify this. There are lots of green manure crops to supplement then the use of urea in small farmers, who plough in straw, promote compost, use and remove only the edible part/s from the crop were some suggestions.

Water supply

(d) Effective soil moisture conservation and water supply to crops: adequate supply of water to crop is the most important factor but does not give enough weight through the farmer. In the dry zone, tank based paddy are over-use, conveyance losses and poor farms are seen with less water management. In the rain fed paddy, it is the case of poor water conservation practices.

The benefits of other management practices depend on how effectively the farmer supply water to his crop. The farmer should realise that though water from rain is free but when it is collected to a tank and delivered to the farmer's field through canal network and maintain the system cost much public money. For other highland crops the soil water conservation is important to avoid stress and strains to the crop.

(e) Integrated pest and disease management: In the past our farmers have practised a form of integrated pest management (IPM) effectively.

For countries like ours and considering farm sizes and intensity of operations IPM is more economically, an efficient method than pesticide. At present, our farmers heavily depend on pesticide which is the only approach and is costly, harmful to the user consumer and to the environment.

It can reduce the pesticide use in the range of 30-100 per cent according to holding size, crop type, season and the efficiency of extension service and farmer's willingness.

(f) Prevention of soil degradation and appropriate land use: The farming in our situations soil is the most important natural resource. It is pone to various hazards because of improper use and poor management. Once degraded (causing erosion, develop salinity, destroying structure, toxicity and death) the result would be poor yields. Once degraded it takes long periods and needs heavy investments to rectify, which the farmer can not afford.

Nutrient bank

We consider the soil as a nutrient bank because as in other countries use of planting seed bags, coco pitch brickets and fertigation systems are expensive and not appropriate for extensively cultivated crops.

In the recent past the farmer's interest to maintain the soil fertility is lost because of the visible quick responses of artificial fertilizers and liquid sprays.

Hence, the activation of Soil Conservation Act and proper understanding of the value of soil and investments for land development with soil conservation is important.

The farmer should make aware the cultivation of most suitable crop/s for his land and select suitable site in his land for a given crop (proper land use) and enriching his soil year after year.

(g) Minimize post harvest losses: Post harvest losses are the most serious problem once the crop is harvested. This is more evident in perishables like fruits and vegetables and goes up to 40 per cent of the harvest.

It starts with the farmer either harvesting before maturity eg. mango and big onion, over mature eg. okra and other vegetables, collecting methods in the field, tight packing in gunnies, loading and transporting carelessly and displaying in retail shops exposing to perish.

Mitigate this problem

If the farmer, collector and trader can mitigate this problem we can reduce the labour costs, input costs and waste disposals costs at the terminal end considerably. It should be a joint awareness in the marketing channels using new technique. The most important factor is the quality consciousness of the farmer through consumer.

(h) Promotion of agro-industries and value addition at rural level: This is also a very important factor to consider for more income generation for the farmer and employment generation for the rural youth. It reduces cost of production of the final produce or product. It also reduces the regional imbalance pushing backward regions forward.

(i) Use of appropriate farm machinery: The use of some agricultural machinery and implements are not suitable for our agricultural environments viz. soil and crop types, holding sizes etc. For eg. drip irrigation systems with fertigation units established in coconut lands are not appropriate and are failures with lot of money wasted. The modern technology should be adapted according to our crops and farmer's capacity to maintain those.

(g) Production oriented agricultural research and extension: If one analyses the cost and benefits of the research by a large number of research institutes it is difficult to justify the benefits to the farmers to improve his agriculture except paddy.

Solve farmers' problems

The research should focus to solve farmers present day problems in efficient use of inputs, increasing yields, reducing operating costs and improve quality and compete with other Asian countries. In addition it should concentrates on agricultural innovations.

(i) Agricultural credit and marketing: Credit schemes are operating through various foreign funded projects and banks for farmers. But the use of these facilities is not encouraging. Today the farmer is not a defaulter as in the past and he is a reliable customer in repayment of loans according to bank managers working in rural areas.

To uplift the agricultural sector since the returns in the sector are low, credit facilities should be offered at concessionary interest rates with relaxed co-laterals and easy terms.

(j) Efficient agricultural services to farmer: Most of the activities in relation to farming are supported by various government services. These services should be much efficient and active. The farmer should not allow to waste time and frustrate in search of officers to get these services because it is a cost to him.

(The writer was a former Agricultural Economist to the Ministry of Lands, Irrigation and Mahaweli Development)