Earthhope

Trends and perspectives

Policies for irrigation development:

by J. Alwis

The policy initiatives for the program to develop irrigation facilities in the dry zone were first taken by the colonial government during the first quarter of this century when Sri Lanka experienced the travails of an impoverished economy. The rural peasantry was the worst affected by the economic despondency which gripped the country during this period. Official documents of that time bear witness to famines and near famine conditions in the Dry Zone, abject rural poverty, deprivation and starvation among rural peasantry. The incipient development of a policy which concerned itself with the welfare of the rural peasantry was given shape towards the end of the quarter and was crystallized into recommendations in the Land Commission report of 1927.

These recommendations were subsequently translated into an action programme through the Land Development Ordinance in 1935.

Irrigation construction for land redistribution

1. The programme which dealt with land and water resources development and through which rural welfare policies were committed to action acquired the form of a land redistribution programme for which even special agencies such as the Land Commissioner's Department and the Land Development Department were set up. The bias towards land redistribution was prompted in a large measure by the difficulties that had to be encountered in attracting people to settle down in dry zone parts of the country.

On the one hand the dry zone conditions offered a harsh and an inhospitable environment infested with Malaria. On the other the unequal competition between paddy cultivation and the plantation crops persisted with paddy yields in Sri Lanka being the lowest in Asia. The policy makers therefore asserted that the colonization of the dry zone through which the redistribution of population would be effected was the only way out and that it will soon become 'not a matter of choice but a grim necessity'. So the challenge before the government was to formulate and implement a programme which would make the transfer of the wet zone rural population to the dry zone as attractive and feasible as possible.

Considering these circumstances under which the programmes had to be implemented the accent on social welfare policies could not have been easily avoided.

1. As Malaria was responding to DDT spraying, prospects for increasing the pace of the programme became brighter. In 1948 when Sri Lanka became an independent nation, the social and political objectives of the programme appear to have been far more important than its corresponding economic potential and it was well on its way to become the cornerstone of government policy to promote peasant welfare.

1. In retrospect, the emphasis on land redistribution for the 'colonisation of the dry zone' resulted in certain negative features of the programme being left unaltered. Firstly the integration between the irrigation sector and the agriculture sector left much to be desired and even today it has proved to be a major constraint. Given the state of technological development achieved by the Department of Agriculture in paddy and other domestic crops in forties and early fifties, an immediate breakthrough in producing a food surplus through irrigation systems did not appear to be all that feasible, although the best conditions for irrigated farming existed in dry zone conditions.

1. Secondly the peasant welfare policies in the manner they were dovetailed to the resettlement programme conveyed an impression which was totally incompatible with the costs effectiveness of the programmes implemented. By and large, irrigation and settlement programme was understood as a social service programme to relieve people of their immediate distress.

1. Thirdly the design of the physical system did not take into account the need to incorporate measures to assure effective water distribution and the proper water management to guarantee equitable distribution at field level. Physical structures for the control and regulation of water flows were conspicuously absent in major irrigation systems designed during this period. The distributary and field canals were of irregular lengths and in certain cases the length of each field channels was over one mile. Obviously the need to manage water was not a primary consideration in the design philosophies adopted in planning these schemes.

1. Fourthly the design of irrigation system was mainly intended to provide supplementary irrigation during Maha and not necessarily aimed at a Yala cultivation in the manner that these facilities are being utilized today. So the discharge capacity of the canal system was limited. Evidently the provision of supplementary irrigation facilities during Maha did not place a high premium either on the control capacities of the system or on the capacity of farmers to obtain and share water equitably. In expanding the scale and intensity of operation to meet the new demands for extensive cultivation, inadequate canal capacities seem to have acted as a major constraint in system operations.

1. On reflecting upon these situations, comments offered here could be easily said today than they were acted upon before. From an engineering perspective, maximum consideration was given to ensure safety of the reservoir. Then it was also necessary to bring as much cultivable land as possible into the command areas so that the largest number of farm families could be settled. The irrigation system was therefore stretched on all sides like a membrane to accommodate the demand for more lands and much of them originated with political interventions.

When canal and other reservations were also annexed to the system, its operation proved to be even more difficult, and management problems were further compounded resulting from additional lands being considered as recipients of legal water entitlements.

Maximising agricultural production

1. Until sixties, the programme for the development of irrigation and settlement schemes was financed entirely by local funds. The pattern of allocating investment resources in favour of irrigation and settlement development however began to attract criticisms in the second half of fifties. This situation was further heightened by the attractive economic benefits in the plantation sector. The wisdom of making further allocations for the establishment of colonisation schemes was then challenged and appeared in several of the government planning and policy documents. For instance, the Agriculture Plan issued by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food in 1958 commented that "the cost of current policies of land development, irrigation and colonisation are extremely high and that the annual production in the average dry zone colony represents only about 16% of the total capital outlay". Prof. Kaldor, a visiting economist advised the government that "large scale schemes for the development of food production by means of irrigation are found to be very wasteful in comparison with large scale schemes for the development of plantation agriculture". Outside these references, several other view points asserted that in terms of earning scarce foreign exchange, employment and return on investment in industrial and plantation sectors were far more attractive than investments in land developments.

1. Alongside these changes in the thinking, the more important development however took place in the agriculture sector with the introduction of the new technology of high yielding varieties by the so called Green Revolution. The new variety of H-4 had been already bred towards the end of fifties and rice breeders appeared to have closely identified factors concerning the environmental conditions, new techniques of breeding and plant types related to the spread of high yielding varieties even as early as mid-sixties. Varietal trials conducted under different agro-ecological conditions confirmed that strategies for rice breeding should adopt perceptive changes more suitable to local conditions and that it should be even tailored to satisfy the weaknesses arising out of low input technology to which most farmers resort to in discounting risks in paddy farming.

1. The decade of sixties was a watershed in the development of irrigated agriculture in Sri Lanka. On reaching sixties, the restoration of the more important large reservoir have been completed or taken in hand. The construction of new reservoirs in new sites was becoming costly.

Down-stream development was proving to be even more costlier. Lack of local funds to support a continuation of the programme for irrigation and settlement development required a revision of the implementation strategies which favoured maximizing production in irrigation systems. The technological development in the agriculture sector facilitated this change in emphasis as high complementarity existed between irrigation facilities and the high yielding varieties.

A change in the direction and emphasis from peasant welfare programmes to an effort at maximizing production output required organizational and institutional changes. Already the Paddy Lands Act of 1958 ushered a new era by introducing tenancy reforms. Amendments were introduced in the first half of sixties to the Irrigation Ordinance and Paddy Lands Act to incorporate new thinking on combining institutional development with the process developed for irrigated agriculture. Even more importantly the prohibition on cultivating other crops in paddy fields was removed giving new impetus to the cultivation of subsidiary crops. Enhanced Agricultural Credit, providing legal status to Guaranteed Price Scheme and extension of the same scheme to other crops and promotion of Agricultural Insurance for paddy are some of the other important institutional innovations introduced during sixties through a package of institutional reforms.

1. The new emphasis on maximising production as generated by the social, political, economic and technological environment that prevailed during sixties also resulted in precipitating plural approaches promoted through national level participation and also through individual initiatives by officials themselves. In 1965, the new Government Agent of Anuradhapura, late Mr. Mahinda Silva who in his previous posting functioned as Director of Agriculture, experimented with two important innovative approaches in his District. In the programme which he initiated for certain minor irrigation systems in Kahatagasdigiliya area, an attempt was made to co-ordinate services provided by the line departments with a view to eliminate certain production constraints which the farmer had to encounter at the field level and provide extension support in maximising resource utilization. This programme eventually aimed at optimizing the services provided by field level official without increasing their numerical strength. In the second programme, the strategy worked out for the minor system was developed to prepare an Agriculture Implementation Programme for the district with planning targets being fixed in close collaboration with grass-root organisations.

1. Perhaps the more important events that took place in the period after mid-sixties were further enhanced by the arrival of a mission in Sri Lanka under the auspices of the FAO/IBRD Co-operative Programme to review the status of the irrigation development programme in Sri Lanka as envisioned by the Government of that time. The mission was popularly referred to as the Pepersak Mission, named after the mission leader who was an agronomist.

More specifically the arrival of the Mission was in response to a request by the government to obtain foreign funds to finance the irrigation programme. The Mission was expected to review the strategies to optimize resource utilization and make recommendations on institutional, organizational, managerial and technical measures required to ensure successful execution and operation in existing and future projects.

1. The report of the Mission submitted in 1967 asserted that "the objective of increasing productivity (and income) of farmers, of capital and of land must take primacy over the objective of settling the maximum number of families without regard to whether these families can eventually earn enough to pay taxes rather than having to rely indefinitely on direct and hidden subsidies". The mission recommendations included irrigation rehabilitation instead of expanding the irrigated extent through new construction of irrigation projects, and undertaking lift irrigation, drainage and reclamation programmes.

It also recommended measures to intensify agricultural production by formulating package programmes to increase the flow of agricultural inputs, water control to prevent inefficient and wasteful practices and initiate crop diversification to enhance farmer incomes..

1. Amongst the recommendation made by the Mission, highest attention was however given by the government to a programme to intensify the production output by launching the Special Projects Programme (SPP) of 1967 which covered approximately 80,000 acres in 24 major systems. This programme coincided with the spread of the Green Revolution technology which was seen as a solution to the teething problems of food deficits in the Asian region. The worsening food crisis and the depleting foreign exchange situation added more impetus to the goals enunciated by the SPP and the Prime Minister himself actively participated in reviewing and monitoring its progress.

1. Within few years of initiating the SPP a rapid upsurge in the paddy yields was recorded in major systems. But before long the programme started showing signs of exhaustion and was unable to sustain its initial momentum.

1. From the present state of knowledge, the following are two important shortcomings seen in the implementation of the SPP.

a) The importance given to maximize the yield potential was far in excess of the attention given to the need to sustain achievements which could have been attained through active involvement and participation of farmers in the development process.

b) Since adequate attention was not paid to the availability of a reliable and predictable supply of water, the need for institution building to develop a process for water management was overlooked. Emphasis was however given to strengthen the hand of officials in the management of the programme.

1. Indeed the SPP was an important milestone in the culmination of thinking which attempted look beyond the mere confines of a settlement programme with peasant welfare as its principal objective. It also signalled the first step in the large scale transition of subsistence agriculture to commercial farming in major schemes.

The integrated approach of this programme to increase production featured new institutional devices and approaches to co-ordinate agriculture development work in Districts. As a matter of act it was also intended as a dress rehearsal to determine the development strategies most suitable for the Mahaweli Development Programme which was in the planning stage.

1. Following are some of the key lessons learnt from the SPP which were to influence subsequent development in the sector.

a) The need for a holistic approach combining economic and social development goals in project objectives leading to total development;

b) Acknowledgement of the need for a better co-ordinated effort at the project level by formulating an action programme and obtaining commitment from line agencies for implementation;

c) Recognizing inter-disciplinary team work in irrigated agriculture;

d) Combining lowlands and highlands for crop diversification;

e) Demonstrating the feasibility of cultivating subsidiary field crops in the dry zone on commercial scale with high profitability;

f) Recognize the need for judicious planning to phase out excessive official involvement and facilitate the sharing of management responsibilities with farmers;

g) Acceptance of the need to introduce new management structures, incentives and organizational patterns to meet new demands.

To be continued

Give back to life

Commemorating the World Environment day on June, 5 Coca-Cola Beverages Sri Lanka Limited completed three successful PET collection drives among the employees of Coca-Cola, the residents and schools of the Biyagama area, and the Manik Farm IDP Centre in Vavuniya.

The main project marking this endeavor was conducted in collaboration with residents of the Biyagama area. All the used PET bottles collected during the programme went to the plant in Biyagama. Each employee was rewarded depending on the number of bottles contributed. A total of almost 4000 bottles were collected on PET collection day at the plant.

Residence of Biyagama also collected PET bottles, which were collected by staffers. The project was a success, with a total of approximately 913 kg (20,000 bottles) of PET being collected within a timeframe of 3 hours.

The number of bottles exceeded the anticipated number as there was an overwhelming contribution from the residents of the area following the effective awareness campaign conducted prior to the date of collection.

Another segment of the Environment Day programme was collecting PET from the Biyagama Primary School and the Biyagama Central School. This initiative too was successful with both schools contributing over 850 PET bottles.

The students were rewarded for their conscious efforts towards protecting the environment. The highest number of bottles from an individual student was from Saubhagya Neerodhi of the Biyagama Central School, who brought 70 bottles while the highest number of bottles from a class was from the 5 A Class of the Biyagama Primary School, which was 207 bottles.

The collection of PET bottles from the IDP centres in Vavuniya was the third initiative by Coca-Cola to commemorate World Environment Day. This project witnessed the collection of 450 kg of PET bottles from the Manik Farm IDP Centre in Vavuniya. The bottles were collected and brought to the Coca-Cola plant in Biyagama on the 5th of June in a symbolic gesture in commemoration of the World Environment Day.

“Our initiative on World Environment Day has heightened the awareness among our employees as well as the residents of the area regarding PET recycling.

We hope to sustain this momentum and continue our recycling efforts among the employees as well as the residents of the area” said Patrick Pech, Country Manager, Coca-Cola Beverages Sri Lanka Limited.

“The ‘Give Back Life’ project has come a long way since its inception in July 2008” said Manish Chaturvedi, Country Manager, Sri Lanka and Maldives, Coca-Cola Far-East Limited. An overwhelming collection of 1.3 tons of PET waste was made during this endeavor.

Near extinct?

Family - Arecaceae

Scientific Name - Calamus pachystemonus Thw.

Sinhalese Name - Kukulu Wel

Status - Critically Endangered, Endemic

Calamus pachystemonus belongs to Arecaceae family (palm family) that includes more than thirty species and ten species are recorded only from Sri Lanka. Genus Calamus consists of ten species among them C. pachystemonus restricted to few lowland rain forests in Kalutara and Galle. It is a most endangered palm species in Sri Lanka.

It is slender small, clustering climber (30-50 cm in height). The stem of the climber is thin, about 1 cm in diameter with leaf sheath. Leaves are small, pinnate (30-50 cm long, 20 cm wide) and dark green in colour. Flowers are arranged as clusters. Identification features are, pinnately arranged leaflets.

According to the 2007 Red List of Threatened Fauna and Flora of Sri Lanka C. pachystemonus is a critically endangered species. This species is under threat of extinction due to depletion of forests, especially tea cultivation near forest areas, logging, habitat destruction, etc...

Pic source: Dassanayake & Clayton 2000

Reference

1. Dassanayake, M.D. and Clayton, W.D. (eds.) (2000) A revised handbook to the flora of Ceylon. Oxford IBH, New Delhi.

3. De Zoysa, N. & Vivekanandan (1994) Rattans of Sri Lanka Forest department, Sri Lanka.

2. IUCN Sri Lanka and the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (2007). The 2007 Red List of Threatened Fauna and Flora of Sri Lanka, Colombo, Sri Lanka.

By Dilup Chandranimal

IUCN (The International Union for Nature Conservation of Nature)

Sri Lanka-Country Office.