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by Anura Maitipe

Instead of making promises of providing a 50 kilo bag of any variety of fertilizer at Rs. 550 and purchasing a kilogram of paddy at Rs.17.00, UNP Presidential Candidate Ranil Wickremesinghe must apologise to the farming community for the closure of State Fertilizer Manufacturing Corporation and the Paddy Marketing Board under his Government, former Agriculture Minister and JVP parliamentarian Anura Kumara Dissanayaka said at a public rally in Kegalle.

The State Fertilizer Manufacturing Corporation was a donation by the then Soviet Union on the request of late Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike.

The main objective of setting up this Fertilizer factory at Sapugaskanda was to make use of petroleum by-products for the benefit of the farming community of this country, he pointed out.

With the establishment of The Urea Plant at Sapugaskanda, Sri Lanka became self sufficient in fertilizer requirements of the country. In 1982, the annual production of urea at Sapugaskanda factory was 310,000 tons. Then the country's annual demand was only 290,000 tons. While providing fertilizer for farmers at a reasonable price, the excessive production of 20,000 tons of urea was exported earning foreign exchange to the tune of Rs. 200 million.

In 1982 the annual savings of State Fertilizer Corporation stood at Rs.750 million. In addition to this, it had provided direct employment opportunities to 1,250 workers, he said.

Over 105 acres of land along with the Rs. 3 billion worth urea plant was sold for a song. And that plant is still operating in a Middle East country. And Sri Lanka imports fertilizer now produced by the same plant at a higher price.

The Paddy Marketing Board was established under the sponsorship of People's Bank in order to provide a reasonable price for local producers as well as consumers. Then Paddy Marketing Board (PMB) bought 70 per cent of the paddy harvest from farmers in this country and it owned 26 large scale paddy mills and 278 paddy stores throughout the country.

This much needed public property was converted into an unprofitable institution under the UNP regime. The closure of the PMB paved the way for a market monopoly for the private sector to exploit the farmer as well as the consumer.

Therefore as a cabinet member of that Government, Wickremesinghe is fully responsible for the present constant price hike of fertilizer, marketing problems of paddy and high prices of rice.

The closure of Sapugaskanda Urea plant in January 1987 and winding up of PMB was the beginning of a sad episode of the farming community in Sri Lanka. That was a grave crime committed by the UNP regime led by Ranil's uncle former President J. R. Jayewardene in 1977 which went against the farming community in this country.

Therefore it is the duty of the UNP Presidential Candidate Ranil Wickremesinghe as a cabinet member of his uncle's regime that undermined the farming community of Sri Lanka that he should tender his apology to the farming community of this country instead seeking a fresh mandate to become President of this country.

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