Key agriculture sector reforms in creating a productive nation

Daily FT-Colombo University MBA Alumni Association forum shares key insights from public-private sector experts

University of Peradeniya Agriculture Education Unit Director Prof P.W.M.Buddhi  Marambe, Moderator Ministry of Agriculture Research Policy Department Chairman Gerry Jayawardena, Agriculture Dept Director General Dr. Rohan Wijekoon and Hayleys Plc Managing Director, Head of Agriculture sector Rizvi Zaheed             

By Shehana Dain

Priorities in the agriculture sector towards creating a productive nation came under the spotlight at the Daily FT-Colombo University MBA Alumni Association organised full day forum titled ‘Reforms: The Way Forward’ last week. 

Ministry of Agriculture Research Policy Department Chairman Gerry Jayawardena, an individual with ample experience in the field, chaired the session, which included Ministry of Agriculture Secretary B. Wijayatne, Agriculture Department Director General Dr. Rohan Wijekoon, University of Peradeniya Agriculture Education Unit Director Prof. P.W.M. Buddhi Marambe and Hayleys Plc Managing Director and Agriculture Sector Head Rizvi Zaheed as panellists.

Jayawardena shared his thoughts on Sri Lanka lagging in moving forward as a country solely based on primary production and utilising almost 30% of its labour force in it while urging reforms in agro-based industries and employment generation in the value chain process. However he noted that at least 20% of the population should be involved in primary production for sustainable agriculture.

“We are having a situation today where 60% of the farmers are above 50 years; this has to transfer to the younger generation but today most of our youngsters are with smart phones and they would rather drive a three-wheeler than become a farmer. This thinking has to change. Ninety per cent of the crop production in Sri Lanka is rain-fed, look up at the sky and wait for your crop. In such a situation, do you expect those youth, most of them with O/L or A/L qualifications and with access to smartphones, to cultivate for you? There is no way that will happen. This is where modernisation in agriculture is vital to give the youngsters decision-making power and an opportunity for value adding their own products.”

“Take our fruit production; how much of these fruits produced in Sri Lanka end up as fruit juice in bottles? How much is imported? Do we have enough fruit coming to a single factory at least 200 days a year for production? This is the same with vegetables but in foreign countries there are so many jobs created in the value chain process,” Jayawardena added.

Jayawardena said that while Sri Lanka is self sufficient with regard to rice, vegetables and fruits, a Rs. 200 million import fee is slashed mainly including wheat flour and sugar and maize imports.

“I’m sure that you’ll are concerned about the food prices and why our food is high cost. If a farmer produces a kilo of onions in Dambulla and he gets a price of 50, we in the market pay 100 or above. The highest transaction cost is in Sri Lanka. Similarly why don’t we have cold storage in Sri Lanka? A lot of people ask us this. We are planning on having it which could reduce the cost of preserving during the off season significantly,”

The former Director General of the Agriculture Ministry also shared his views on low productivity in Sri Lanka. “When we take 15 tons per hectare in Nuwara Eliya, in India in Shimla and Orissa they talk about 60 tons per hectare and in Oregon it’s 100 tons per hectare,” he explained.

Panel discussion Q&A

 

Q: What have public-private partnerships done in order to boost agriculture in the contemporary era?

Rizvi Zaheed: Currently if you look at the geostrategic advantage, there is a huge demand for value-added agricultural produce, be it food or horticultural products or whether they are agriculture-derived inputs for the industry. For example, extracts from seaweed, of which Sri Lanka has a huge resource base, which if leveraged we can produce a large amount of sub products. We have this concept and the policy framework has been set to establish free zones where local or regional players can come to Sri Lanka to produce value added agri-based products. 

One which comes to my mind now is aquatic products, which are a good opportunity; these plants are used in fish ponds and tanks. Those who have been to Dubai and USA would have seen huge aquariums and people are moving away from artificial stuff. So in Sri Lanka if we bring in a lot of plants and I’m sure the Ministry will grant approval for this and countries from other parts of the world can be investors and Sri Lanka can be a strong strategic partner. Similarly there is a whole wealth of opportunity for private companies to work out a product which suits the market. It’s up to the big players to create signals and make a platform for marketable products.

It should also be noted that nano technology is the crown jewel of agriculture so far and I hope it goes far. In essence what has happened is with Hayleys’ involvement with the institute we have researched a nano tech fertiliser with a slow release mechanism that currently with the trials done for the past three years through Government agencies is showing the potential to reduce the volume of inorganic fertiliser by as much as 50% and minimum at 25% based on soil conditions. We have good news that we are going to have provisional approval to use this in the Ampara District in the coming season. 

Thought leadership is the most significant thing that can be done through a PPP partnership by introducing agriculture extension services in a new paradigm. Hopefully Sri Lanka will become a real high tech player in agriculture and enrich the life of Sri Lankans in a real and sustainable way.

Q: How do we address the issue of underemployment in the agriculture industry?

Buddi Marambe: Whether we like it or not, the farming community has got together in most parts of the country and has been doing corrective reform. They may have their own small piece of land but once they get together as a team and start cultivating, the problem has been sorted in most cases. The other issue is related to the labour issue in agriculture. A lot of people complain that 43% of our land is utilised for agriculture and 28.5% of our workforce is in agriculture but still the contribution to GDP is only 7.9%.

Unfortunately our statistics system takes primary agriculture separately and anything related to the agri business sector is taken to the industrial side. If you notice, about 6% of the overall growth of the industrial sector comes from food and beverages related items. On the other hand the real requirement in the present day context is to have technology and management introduced. In this line productivity should be increased in Sri Lanka; the only way it can be done with the resource constraints we have in this small island nation is to ensure the introduction of appropriate technology. 

We have succeeded in this aspect with regard to rice cultivation; in the 1940s we only had six million in population and we imported more than 60% and in 2016 with 21 million we produce about 13% more rice than we need. The return to investment with rice is about 174% in this country according to a thesis. So my final suggestion is we should revamp this research and development focus and get the private sector on board.

 Rizvi Zaheed: Sri Lanka is a very small country with only 65,000 square meters of land; of that agricultural land available for growing new crops is very restricted. There are also laws that govern the ownership of land, many decades of land alienation, fragmentation and colonisation has gone against economies of scale we could have achieved. For example if you take Ampara where the land owning is much larger than average, the paddy crop activity is very high. Therefore we are pushing the Government to find ways the policy system can be developed to identify those parcels of land which are not properly utilised or underutilised available throughout Sri Lanka where various crops can be grown via one of these programs and then make it available to the private sector also which are used to grow high value added niche market crops and then link those farms to a network of individual small farmers and help them to get commercial. These small farmers will be provided agri extension services, technology transfers and most importantly found markets.

Q: How is the Ministry working on attracting the youth of this country to come into the agriculture sector?

Dr. Rohan Wijekoon: The glut in this country is we don’t know about the harvest we will get at the end of the cultivation, that’s why we already have a pilot project in place for a farmer database. The farmers with the assistance of our representatives have to feed our website and continually update our database, so that exporters or industrialists can decide what they should do with the crops. We will open this website to the whole country.

In terms of IT development we are about to open the National Agricultural Information Centre in Gannoruwa soon and launch a separate radio channel for our farmers or anyone who requires information.

DFCC Bank was the strategic partner of the full-day forum. 

Pix by Upul Abayasekara and Gitika Talukdar