eServices give tea smallholders just their cup of tea

With eServices kicked off at the Tea Small Holdings Development Authority (TSHDA) recently, tea smallholders have begun to find the easy way of doing their cultivation and business duties just their cup of tea.

The eServices project that empowers the tea smallholders thus is the fruition of the joint effort of TSHDA and the ICT Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) and TSHDA. The project that aims to make life easier for the tea smallholder was officially launched by Plantation Industries Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe at the TSHDA auditorium on 2 May.

Addressing the audience including Government officials and representatives of the country’s tea smallholder societies totalling about 1200, the minister underlined the importance of the tea smallholders. Unlike what many think 75% of the country’s total tea industry revenue comes from tea small holdings.

Speaking further at the occasion the Minister urged the TSHDA to ensure that proper training in the use of relevant eServices is given to tea smallholders who total about 400,000 island-wide. Speedy action in this regard is important, the Minister urged.

Under this initiative, eServices are provided and availed of by the use of computers, mobile phone, internet and other ICT facilities. Providing subsidies to the tea smallholder and making optimum use of electronic facilities in relevant activities is a major breakthrough in making comfortable the life of the tea smallholder.

Speaking at the launch TSHDA General Manager K. G. B. Obeysekera enumerated several ways by which eServices at TSHDA would bring ease and comfort to the tea smallholder. Tea smallholders are given their cultivation subsidy in instalments. When their instalments are sent to the bank of their choice TSHDA used to inform them about it by post. Furnishing this incurs Rs. 15 as stamp cost but with the launch of eServices the same information is passed on to the relevant tea smallholder through SMS and this costs only 50 cents or one rupee.  

Participating in the occasion ICTA Re-engineering Government Programme Director Wasantha Deshapriya pointed out the importance of automation with examples. Citing the facility of calling 1919 to know the ‘next train’ for commuters  to know the time the next train plies,  Deshapriya said: “During what might be called non festal normal time, e.g., 9 or 10 April,  the total number of calls to 1919 to know the next train was about 400 a day. But on 12 April it was 1500. This was because citizens who could not catch a bus to go to their villages to celebrate the New Year had called 1919 to check the availability of special trains. Any novel tool or facility should become rooted in the people for it to be successful. The call to 1919 or the Government Information Centre to know the train time-table has now become a well-rooted instance of eService provision.”

Making a presentation of TSHDA eServices, TSHDA Assistant Manager Planning and Monitoring Rohita Vaidyaratne explained the practical aspects of the service with examples. Accordingly an example of the use of this facility would be the process of knowing the status of the application submitted by a tea smallholder for obtaining a subsidy. Suppose a tea smallholder asks the status of his application from TSHDA through an SMS sent to 1919, the Government Information Centre (GIC). A customer would need to type a text and send tshda(space)sts(space)regional office code(space)subsidy number.

Example – Permit no tshda sts 1 14561 refers to subsidy no 14561 issued by the Galle regional office.  Here ‘sts’ stands for status of the application. Digit ‘1’ stands for the office concerned from which subsidy is obtained. It is the code for the regional office. 14561 is the tea cultivation subsidy number. A reply received for this inquiry could be, “Subsidy No. 14561 of Galle; Cheque cancelled on instalment 3”. Or it could be, “Subsidy No. 14561 of Galle; Inspection due on instalment 3”. Or it could be, “Permit cancelled”.  Or positively it could be, “Subsidy No. 14561 of Galle; Payment released for instalment 3”. “Subsidy No 14561 of Galle – Preparing payment for instalment 3”.  “Subsidy No. 14561 of Galle; Preparing Voucher for instalment 3”.

Plantation and Industries Ministry Secretary Sudharma Karunaratne, Additional Secretary G. D. W. Jayawardena, TSHDA Chairman Noel Padmasiri Kariyawasam, General Manager K.G.B. Obeysekera also participated at the occasion. As part of the launch ceremony, the Minister sent an SMS query to Tea Smallholders’ Society Federation Chairman Nevil Ratnayake who was among the audience.   Reciprocatively, recipient Nevil Ratnayake sent his SMS reply to the Minister thus proving the availability of the service. The main office-bearers from each of the eight regional tea smallholders’ Federations of tea smallholder societies were also among the participants.