It is a truly sad state of affairs that
Sri Lanka has STILL not been able to sort out its paddy production / sales/
farmer livelihood/ fertilizer/ and subsidy programs to be in a relative state
of equilibrium, without the consumer being at the mercy of extortionists and
the farmer being exploited due to ignorance!
I have already suggested a simple
process, whereby farmers are able to recoup some income from selling their
surplus over and above the 2000kg limit guaranteed by the Govt. whilst at the
same time giving work to the medium sized mill owners, and reducing the price
of rice sold through Sathosa by at least Rs15 per kg from current prices.
Needless to say, the Govt. has not taken this advice given over a month ago, in
anticipation of the current crisis then!
I cannot understand, why, the Govt. was
unable, with all the resources at their disposal to take cognizance, AND not
listen to the same record, I was able to give, and thereby prevent an
unnecessary crisis that merely affect the confidence of the people as well as
grossly let the farmers and the consumer down, permitting the paddy miller
mafia to take advantage of the situation.
It is still not too late to make this
correction, but now added to that is the fertilizer fiasco, where a simple
system of anticipating the needs of the farmer by area, has yet to be put in
place to ensure that the adequate stocks in the Country are properly
distributed on an as needed basis. Who is in charge of this forecasting?
Donkeys!
I have combed through the press, and I
cannot see any urgency on the part of the policymakers to make the needed
changes to solve this simple problem, leaving the JVP led farmer organizations
the freedom to castigate the incompetence of the administration.
While the link above is an amateurs way of
making an explanation, the national policy must first be clear to farmers, and once
explained the payment of an amount per acre for each season will be in order, from
which the farmer may make whatever decision he wishes for his property, whether
to buy organic fertilizer or improve the land by increasing the size of the fields
to enable large machines to operate more economically, all of which will go to improve
the long term efficiency, and therefore profitability of the farmer.
No comments:
Post a Comment