Nutritious food supplements through local crops

Boost to agriculture sector:

by Indeewara Thilakarathne

Thousands of acres of farm lands stretching from Mahiyangana, the land of indigenous population of Sri Lanka , to fertile soils of Tissa Maharama, are being cultivated for two seasons with locally grown cereals such as green gram, corn.

However, unlike the paddy farmers who swallowed weedicide as they were unable to sell the bounty harvest, these farmers supply their harvest to a Sri Lankan food processing company with which they have entered into contracts.

The Sri Lankan owned concern was born out from an agricultural project launched by Plenty Canada with financial aid of Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) in 1987 with the objective of helping the farmers in the dry zone to cultivate Soya Beans.

Subsequently Plenty Foods (Pvt) Ltd which took over the operation was able to win back the disenchanted farmers and the farm land with rich soil to bring about prosperity to far flung hamlets where abject poverty is taken for granted. Growing communities of over eight thousand five hundred farmers have entered into tri-party agreements where the farmer, bank and the company tied up with one another, in a recurrent credit line.

Under the forward-sale agreement, the company the buyer guarantees a buy-back arrangement, farmer guaranteed with supplying a certain quantity of harvest with a required quality while bank providing loan facilities for the farmer to cultivate the crops.

The bank also provides loan at a low interest rate, as stipulated by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka with the company to buy the harvest.

However, the farmer receives the loan in terms of agricultural inputs such as fertilizer and quality seeds which guaranteed a bounty and quality harvest. By now, the annual pay out for the farmers is amounting to a sum of Rs. 210 million, contributing to the economic wellbeing of the otherwise impoverished provinces such as North Central and Uva.

The principle crops used for production of the nutritious food supplements which is the flagship brand of the company are Soya Bean, Green Gram and Maize. One of the significant aspects of the entire scheme of food processing is that the raw materials for the production have been locally-grown crops.

Besides providing livelihood to a growing community of farmers, the company also provides employments for about seven hundred persons in diverse categories. Plenty Food is a role model for a locally grown business concern with impressive monthly turn over of hundred and sixteen million.

Plans are afoot to cultivate around 22,000 acres of Soya involving approximately 25,000 farmers expanding the current farmer base to around 32,000.

Bottlenecks for business concerns in food production

However, one of the main concerns of Sri Lankan companies snagged in food processing is that lack of financial incentives in the vital area of agriculture which provides livelihoods, to thousands of farmers in far flung hamlets of the country.

It is imperative that in order to lift these impoverished communities, food processing companies with potential for attracting export markets should be encouraged and necessary incentives such as technical know-how should be provided for farmers.

Especially, the authorities and the Ministry of Agriculture should pay attention to companies which use local raw agricultural inputs for their production. Plenty Food (Pvt) Ltd. and Samaposha, a nutrition food supplement is an example of processing locally-grown crops to suit the modern busy life, winning not only the Sri Lankan market but also foreign markets with potential of generating much-needed foreign exchange.

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