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| Sunday, 5 June 2005 |
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Business |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Rotawewa blacksmiths produce spare parts for imported tractors Blacksmiths of Rotawewa, the traditional smithy village in Anuradhapura district are now producing spare parts for imported two-wheel tractors. The Rotawewa Metal Industrialists' Co-operative Society recently signed a forward sales agreement with the Motor Spare Parts Importers' Association to provide rotary blades. At present these rotary blades are imported from Taiwan. The project was initiated by the Ministry of Small and Rural Industries Development under its "Gurupahyen Ranpahayata" (from brown to gold) thousand industrial village development program. The production of rotary blades is not a high machine intensive process. People had the skills and experience of producing various household equipment and ploughshares but their quality was very poor owing to lack of quality steel and the use of traditional production methods. The ministry assisted to solve these problems through the Industrial Development Board (IDB). A cabinet paper was passed to enable the IDB to purchase all used spring leafs of estate bus depots. The IDB now provides quality steel to blacksmiths in Rotawewa and three other smithy villages. The IDB also conducted training programs to increase production and improve management skills of the blacksmiths in Rotawewa. The significant feature of Rotawewa is that every household in the village has or previously had a smithy. Most of them are not functioning and the new generation is reluctant to engage in the industry. In addition to the economic factors there is a social problem because blacksmiths are treated as low caste people. Similar problems have arisen in many traditional rural industries such as pottery and brass industry, Ministry officials said. Some young people are reluctant when their parents suggest to resume the industry. However, a campaign carried out by the ministry to change these attitudes has been successful. The striking feature of the Rotawewa and other industrial villages is that producers belong to co-operative societies. They are empowered to collectively face challenges such as getting raw material, marketing and pricing. Expensive heavy machinery that individual producers cannot afford are provided to the Co-operative Socie GW |
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