Small, they say is beautiful

By Marina Herath

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Most of the villages in the country, are now being cultivated on a large scale. Agro based industries are now in the process of exporting their products to the competitive world market which began with home gardening.

In the past, most of the villages made it a practice of cultivating the land. Cultivating is easy in Sri Lanka as the soil is made for it. School children are encouraged gardening at school level.

This gives the children too an idea about having a home garden. The contribution from the agriculture sector to employment has decreased from 56.8 percent in 1993 to 30.5 percent in 2005 and perhaps this system may help overcome the food crisis.

The government’s vision for the agriculture industry is the best solution to solve the food shortage in Sri Lanka. People may have their own home grown vegetables. If we achieve this target, our country will not have problems like poverty, in our hands.

Small they say, is beautiful. I met a person who had started off with a home garden. I listened to his success story. Ruwan had cultivated one acre at Panagoda, Dadigamuwa using scientific methods. He rises early in the morning by 5.00 am.

Weeding and sweeping the garden are done by him along with his assistants. This fascinating garden is full of pumpkins, tomatoes, chillies, gherkins, manioc, dambala, ladies fingers, brinjals and pepper.

Lined by hedges and stone paths the garden is a paradise for nature lovers.The school in Kaduwela, Munidasa Kumarathunga Vidyalaya has been training their students in agricultural activities. This school is so green with a variety of vegetables.

This has encouraged the school children to grow vegetables in their gardens including a variety of green leaves such as mukunuwenna, gotukola, kankun etc, making their parents proud by providing the necessary vegetables for their meals.

The farms will help the country by exporting vegetables and spices, especially gherkins, pumpkins, chillies and spices. We should bring more attention to the agriculture industry and the government must provide loan facilities to help the farmers.

Pic: Channa Weththasinghe