For a greener tomorrow

Api wawamu - Rata nagamu

by Dhaneshi Yatawara

[email protected]

We, Sri Lankans were born and brought up in a culture where agriculture plays a major role. Our culture is nourished with hundreds of customs and beliefs which are rooted in our green paddy fields and chenas, kept moist by waters of our massive tanks and irrigation systems, treasured and cared by our farmers. For our ancestors nourishing the nation was conspicuous.

The white shadows

We have never begged for our food. We were a self sufficient nation, where every house, every village had enough food stocks in their barns making the nation the granary of the East. White shadows that started to ghost our motherland totally demolished our self-sufficient economy.

We were under colonial rule for nearly four centuries. It totally destroyed our economy, agriculture and all the deep rooted values and customs making us more and more weak and vulnerable. The self sufficient village was lost in front of the plantation economy. Eventually this island nation that was totally independent, had to become totally dependent.

Fortunately or unfortunately, though many regimes which came to power after independence since 1948 tried to implement programmes to restart and upgrade local food production, failed due to many reasons. Does this mean we should be a failing nation continuously and live just hailing our glorious history? It should end for the sake of our successors, the future generation.

Therefore, isn't it high time for us to start thinking rebuilding ourselves and our nation - on every aspect with the strength we inherited from our predecessors?

Undoubtedly, food is one of the basic needs of a human being. It faced its natural changes at the turns and bends of our cultural and social evolution.

Feeding a nation could be the greatest undertaking a country has to face amidst the highly ascending population growth. Comparatively land, water, climate would not rise. There could be a technical drawback. Due to these reasons agriculture sector is faced with a never ending challenge and uncertainty. This is universal. Sri Lanka faces the same scenario though we have a strong agricultural background.

The Government in particular, faces a challenge in sorting out these complicated issues. If not addressed satisfactorily food shortage can draw the country back drastically. Due to the high price increase of food in the world market importing substitutes for existing local food can be unbearable.

According to statistics available the agricultural contribution to the 2006 national gross production was approximately 16.8%. It is highly essential to upgrade this status. As a country our strength is agriculture. We have spent approximately 49 million rupees to import fruits, grains etc. Totally we spend 100 billion rupees to import food items - a 23% of the total food demand. Does this mean to say we have no hope? No way out? Well this is not so gloomy.

We are people of a strong nation. We have a solid and steady history - a great source for experiences of a nation. Nearly 32% of the total population is engaged in agriculture. Yet in 2006 the agricultural contribution to the Gross Domestic Product was 16.8%, including the plantation sector, fisheries and forestry.

According to the statistics, 70 % of the rural population is engaged in agriculture, directly or indirectly. Yet, 25% - 30% of this facing poverty. In 2006 we have spent 49 billion rupees just to import food items like fruits other than dairy products, fish and sugar.

Yet there is another side to this story. According to agricultural census calculated in year 2002, 1.56 million hectares of arable land is divided among 3.25 million farmers.

This includes 382,300 farmers only with a garden and another 559,241 farmers with a plot of land(s) in addition to a garden. There are 700,361 farmers who owns a plot of land(s), according to the statistics gathered. More than 90% of these farmers are capable of cultivating and producing food even in small amounts.

Hence, do we need to entirely depend upon imported food and then put ourselves at risk? By increasing the production of local food items we can lower the high expenditure that goes to import food. It will check the flow of foreign exchange out of the country.

Hence, the Government implemented 'the programme promoting local food production'. This is 'Api Wawamu - Rata Nagamu' - let's grow and build the nation. This programmes is a three year programme starting from year 2007.

Api Wawamu - Rata Nagamu

The programme focuses on:

* Increasing the production of essential food crops,

* Increase the agricultural contribution to the gross production of the country,

* Secure the food and nutrition safety of people

* Decreasing the expenditure of importing food

* Build-up the income of the farmer community

* Expand suitable new technology

* And preserve the environment friendly traditional agriculture methods etc.

Sri Lankan traditional agriculture system focuses on the paddy field, chena and the home garden. These can be properly used to answer the problems such as high living cost, malnutrition and several other related issues. The home garden concept is quite effective to countries like Sri Lanka. It definitely has an impact on nutrition level of a family as well.

The Agriculture Development and Agrarian Services Ministry have already set up 1,756 home gardens with in Colombo, 11,933 in Kandy, 20,795 in Matara, 31,997 in Kurunegala. In Nuwara Eliya there are 10,498 home gardens and another 15,092 in Anuradhapura. These are just the significant numbers the Ministry has achieved so far since the initiation of Api Wawamu - Rata Nagamu project. Improving home gardens is wide spread throughout the country. It takes place almost in every main city.

Though Sri Lanka seems to be self sufficient in rice production wheat flour consumption per person was 40kg per annum. Yet, now we have been able to cut down almost 50% of wheat flour importation this year. On the other hand we have been importing corn in huge quantities just as animal feed. The Ministry is now focusing on gradually increasing the local corn production and totally cut down the importation.

Under the programme schools, military establishments, offices and any arable land are used to cultivate. The Ministry is in full gear promoting the local production at all the levels. We as citizens of this country need to focus more on promoting local production, may be not in large scale but to our level best.

This would definitely give a great boost to the economy as well as to the total social structure - above all this would be the first step in making our future generation to be in a proud and prosperous nation. This is our duty for our land.