Hopes thinning for the rice farmer - EDITORIAL

The Maha Season is approaching and there is great concern within the agriculture community. One of the biggest concerns is farmers not receiving fertilizer at the expected time. When the farmers don’t receive fertilizer as much as they wish this could lead to a food shortage. And this food shortage is expected to pinch the people of this nation in the months of December (2022) and January next year. 

This is a country which went through many aragalayas and saw the resignations of a president and a prime minister; all done with the force initiated by a struggle which demanded a change. Despite all that trouble taken one area which remains stagnated is the agriculture industry. 

Farmers are expecting to cultivate 8.5 million hectares of land this Maha Season. That’s a large area of land, but the hopes of farmers are thin this season. Just a few months ago former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa wanted an overnight change of scrapping chemical fertilizer and shifting to organic agriculture. The results of that decision were devastating. 
This is a country where our ancestors consumed the best rice and even exported the excess produce to selected countries. The kings of yesteryear were behind the success of the farmers and the agriculture plots that were maintained. The kings ensured that the farmers were supported through irrigation projects such as tanks. 

Chemical/organic fertilizer was provided in the form of a subsidy starting 1950. And then in 1975 the fertilizer subsidy was offered in a uniform manner to farmers who engaged in all crops; not only paddy. The worst decision regarding fertilizer came during President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s tenure as the first citizen of the country. 
However, during recent times lawmakers have shown little interest to resolve the issues faced by farmers and also the tea estate labourers. This could be because when the produce from the fields are low the government adopts an importing culture. Last time when the produce during the Yala Season was low the regime imported rice. That rice, according to critics, was not palatable.  

 The agriculture community here in Sri Lanka many years ago received the support of kings and then presidents like Ranasinghe Premadasa. It always took a country leader who knows the pulse of the farmer to serve in the best interest of agriculture. 
Then came an era of importing rice and then took place the blunder regarding a change to 100% organic agriculture. A country which cherished with pride eating its own homegrown rice was then made to taste other rice produced in Pakistan and Thailand. Supermarkets in Sri Lanka were at one time, till very recently, full of this rice termed basmati and imported from other Asian countries.  

Now Sri Lanka has stopped or banned the import of many products. However, the government imports rice to meet the demand of consumers when the home produce isn’t sufficient to go around. And in our political platforms we do hear here and there that this was once a nation which was once self-sufficient in the production of rice. 
Another factor that alarms us is that a good number of farmers will be forced out of the agriculture industry. Agriculture, specially producing rice, involves a work force of over 1.8 million. More than 30% of the Sri Lankan total workforce is directly or indirectly involved in agriculture; the producing of rice. 
The future of the farmer looks bleak and there being no elections in the immediate present puts the farmer in hot water despite the weather being cold and rains splashing most parts of the country right now.