Divi Neguma, a people’s movement

“Divi Neguma the Upliftment of Lives program launched by the Ministry of Economic Development should be a people’s movement” said Minister of Economic Development Basil Rajapaksa.

He was addressing the media at a meeting organised by the Department of Information to create awareness among the public about the program.

Following are excerpts from his speech: “Divi Neguma aims to establish one million household based economic units is a national program. It has to be a people’s movement to be successful and achieve expected goals.

The government launches various programs and when the government’s attention on them decline they become weaker and gradually collapse.However, Divi Neguma has been launched to uphold the lives of the people in this country and make themself sufficient as they were in the past.

The media played a great role in winning the conflict against terrorism. The conflict was fought by our heroes of the security forces. The media made it a national campaign by attracting public support and blessings, and finally the people were behind the victory of the conflict. People’s backing is essential for any program to become successful.

Divi Neguma gets support from all sectors. The government will facilitate the program. The government’s role is limited and only the people can carry out the program and make it successful. The success of this program will depend on the extent people understand it and accept it as their own.

The government cannot cultivate home gardens. It should be done by the owner of the garden. The most important task in this program is persuading people.When we designed the program we understood that nutrition would be given priority.

Although the income of people has increased and they have money there is no improvement in their nutrition. Percapita GDP has increased and people enjoy other facilities.

But there is a deterioration in their nutrition. As living standards of people improve they sacrifice nutrition of the mothers and children for other expenses.

This is a dangerous move arising due to lack of awareness.

The whole family will collapse unless we protect the housewife. Therefore if the family income is generated within the family it will be used for the nutrition of the family. We have focused on household based economic units and planned to attract wider participation of housewives in this program due to this reason.

Today, farmers engage in all types of cultivations earning a higher income compared to the past. Cost of production has reduced or is at a constant level with government assistance such as the fertiliser subsidy. However, this income is not used to improve family nutrition.

If household economic units are successful people will not have to face issues such as increasing vegetable prices. People should begin cultivation with an understanding of the seasonal patterns of agriculture.

If not expected results will not be achieved. We begin with five seasonal crops and in the mid and long term we expect to move to other long term crops.

There are several objectives in this program. Improving family nutrition is one of them.

With this program people will add more fresh vegetables and fruits into their diet and increase consumption of milk, eggs and other animal products. Awareness programs will be conducted on better health practices and nutrition values of food.

The second objective is reducing the cost of living of households.

This program encourages people to grow food items at household level for their consumption using their own labour and other resources. It will save them money spent on purchasing vegetables, fruits and animal products to be pumped into the village economy.

The third objective is food security of the households.

It includes introducing preservation methods of food and diversification of the crops cultivated in home gardens.

The fourth objective is to make new income sources to families by selling excess produce and create new entrepreneurs at village level.

The program will be launched in three sectors; agriculture, fisheries and animal husbandry and household level industries. Therefore it is not limited to home gardening. Households have the choice to select a sector.

At least 100 household economic units will be selected from a Grama Niladari division. Government officials such as Grama Niladaries, Samurdhi Development Officers, Agriculture Research and Production Assistants and Family Health Officers who are working at village level will implement the program. The program will be conducted by national, district and regional task forces.

GW