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Sri Lanka’s Minister of Industry and Commerce has directed a provincial council known for being the country’s leading potato supplier to immediately resolve the grievances of a group of potato farmers.
Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen (seated centre) listens to Uva Province potato farmers
Minister Rishad Bathiudeen also announced that he would make every effort to help them in their struggle - which was indicative of the issues faced by many farmers in the country –taking the matter up with the Cabinet of Ministers.
“We need to support these suffering farmers. I shall present a Cabinet paper and help these harassed farmers,” the Minster vowed on 15 August while speaking at his ministry.
Minister Bathiudeen announced this after discussions with a group of potato farmers from the Uva Province who met him along with State Minister of Labour and Trade Unions Relations Ravindra Samaraweera.
Also present at the meeting were Secretary of the Industry and Commerce Ministry Chinthaka Lokuhetti, Additional Secretary (Food and Cooperatives) Malkanthi Ekanayake, Cooperatives Commissioner and Registrar of Cooperatives S.L. Naseer.
The Uva Province is the leading potato assembly centre in Sri Lanka, annually producing 65% of domestic supply. More than 20,000 farmers are engaged in potato farming in both the Badulla (Uva Province) and Nuwara Eliya (Central Province) districts.
The Uva Province has many active producer cooperative societies and it faces the critical issue of sourcing seed potatoes, which is costly. The Government earlier planned to ban seed potato imports by 2016 to encourage domestic seed production but due to a surge in demand imports are still allowed. Sri Lanka produced 70,377 MT of potatoes in 2014/15 and it increased by 14% to 80,458 MT during 2015/2016’s harvest. The extent of cultivation in 2015/16 was 5,092 hectares, also an increase of 14.5% from the previous season’s 4,447 hectares.
The Uva farmers explained the grave crisis faced by them through a seed potato loan they obtained in 1994.
“Our cost of production is high. Seed potato, the most essential item, is very expensive. Therefore we continuously resort to loans to get our seed potato,” said H.M. Jayathilleke, a famer group leader.
“When we take seed potato loan what actually happens is instead of money, the cooperative directly gives us the seed potatoes, and we are in debt to that value and we pay back in cash later. More than 300 farmers who obtained the loaned seed potatoes in 1994 from Udapalatha Multi-Purpose Cooperative Society (UMPCS) in Keppetipola later discovered that the seeds were damaged, virus-infected and useless. We never paid back this loan simply because the product was defective and useless. However, UMPCS, in spite of their mistake which they covered up, complained to authorities about our non-payment and since 1994, many of us have been routinely rounded up and remanded even at present similar to remanding criminals, and a family member usually bails us out. This is very humiliating for us and our families. This remand issue is on top of the discrimination we faced from the UMPCS which is guilty of giving damaged seeds to us in the first place. Our total loan of Rs. 10 million in 1994 has now ballooned to Rs. 20.7 million and we are in dire straits to settle this. We call for your urgent intervention in this; support us as the cooperatives minister.”
The Udapalatha Multi-Purpose Cooperative Society (UMPCS) in Keppetipola was previously known as the Paalugama Agri Producers Cooperative Society, and Paalugama was a milestone in Sri Lanka’s cooperative history. It was the first cooperative in Sri Lanka specifically organised and established to solely support agro-producers and agro-farmers in the country.
“As the minister in charge of cooperatives, it is my duty to help you and resolve this,” said Minister Bathiudeen.
“Potatoes are considered as the king of vegetables and it is of such high use here. There is an MRP for imported potatoes but no such MRP for local potatoes–this is to support you, the farmers. I am directing my cooperative officials to immediately get in touch with the relevant authorities in the Uva PC. Farmers are a group that the Government wants to support at all times and you are no exception. I also direct my officials, including the Cooperatives Commissioner, to consider possible waivers of your loans since the seeds given to you by the coop seem to be useless, defective and you cannot be blamed. I and my ministry officials are always ready and available to help resolve your farming and coop issues as well.”
The farmers thanked Minister Bathiudeen for his prompt action and thanked his ministry officials for their support.
National level cooperative policymaking that affects Provincial Cooperative Ministries as well as the Cooperative Commissioner are under the purview of the Industry and Commerce Ministry. The Gazette 2003/44 has introduced a Maximum Retail Price for imported potatoes at Rs. 120.00 per kilo which was later reduced by last year’s Budget to Rs. 115.00 per kilo of imported potatoes. In order to support domestic farmers, the Government does not maintain an MRP for locally-produced potatoes.
