Lankan farmers become prisoners of land and fellow humans

by Ranil Senanayake

In 1998 a meeting of farmers convened by the CGIAR to ascertain the farmers viewpoint in agricultural development sent the following statement. (CGIAR stands for Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research and determines much of the agricultural research priorities in the world.):

We, the farmers of Sri Lanka would like to further thank the CGIAR, for taking an interest in us.

We believe that we speak for all of our brothers and sisters the world over when we identify ourselves as a community who are integrally tied to the success of ensuring global food security.

In fact it is our community who have contributed to the possibility of food security in every country since mankind evolved from a hunter-gather existence. We have watched for many years, as the progression of experts, scientists and development agents passed through our communities with some or another facet of the modern scientific world.

We confess that at the start we were unsophisticated in matters of the outside world and welcomed this input. We followed advice and we planted as we were instructed.

The result was a loss of the varieties of seeds that we carried with us through history, often spanning three or more millennia. The result was the complete dependence of high input crops that robbed us of crop independence.

In addition we farmers, producers of food, respected for our ability to feed populations, were turned into the poisoners of land and living things, including fellow human beings. The result in Sri Lanka is that we suffer from social and cultural dislocation and suffer the highest pesticide related death toll on the planet. Was this the legacy that you the agricultural scientists wanted to bring to us? We think not. We think that you had good motives and intentions, but left things in the hands of narrowly educated, insensitive people.

Danger of pesticides

The statement was listened attentively by the top agricultural scientists from all around the world.

Hopefully some were sensitized to these realities and are addressing the stated problems.

But for us in Sri Lanka, what has transpired? From 1998 to 2006, have the stated problems eased? Has the rate of pesticide poisoning gone down? Did we have a national campaign to sensitize our rural population on the dangers of pesticides? Have we reduced the volumes of toxins being applied on the country? Have we instituted a monitoring system for vegetables to protect the citizen's health? The answer to all these questions is a resounding no! We need to ask why? Could it be that the only sources of scholarships were to examine the worth of high input agriculture? It is patently clear that agriculture must begin to look at the long-term health of the consumer as well as the maintenance of biodiversity as two clear goals of the production system.

Production system

In a fossil fuel energy deficient country like Sri Lanka, a national composting program and a reduction of external inputs should be instituted, but this cannot be done as a planned, phasing exercise. Just giving a farmer a bag of compost without the requisite seed and knowledge is a recipe for disaster. Change we must, but it needs to be done in a judicious manner, incrementally, building our farmers to the goals espoused by the Hon. D. S. Senanayake in his book Agriculture and Patriotism.

Basis of national life

Agriculture is not merely a way of making money by raising crops; it is not merely an industry or a business; it is essentially a public function or service performed by private individuals for the care and use of the land in the national interest; and farmers in the course of securing a living and a private profit are the custodians of the basis of the national life.

Agriculture is therefore affected with a clear and unquestionable public interest and its status is a matter of national concern calling for deliberate and far-sighted national policies, not only to conserve the national and human resources involved in it, but to provide the national security, promote a well round prosperity and secure social and political stability.

The farmer statement to the CGIAR would seem to signify that we have wandered far from these goals. Our farmers are amongst the most poorly looked after, their traditions are being broken and their contribution to society ignored.

Their economy is in ruins; Farmer suicides have become commonplace one consequence that effects everyone is the poisoning of the nation. It is time to become more aware that the old saying you are what you eat and begin to look after our children and ourselves.