Sugarcane industry heading for sweet success

By L.S. Ananda Wedaarachchi

The government should give top priority to revive the sugarcane industry, considering the huge sum of around Rs. 41 billion on sugar imports annually, said Sri Lanka Sugarcane Research Institute former chairman Abhaya Weragoda, a leading entomologist in an interview with the Sunday Observer.

Excerpts of the interview:

Q: What went wrong with the sugarcane industry during the past 20 years when sugar production dropped from 65,000 mt to less than 32,000 mt, according to the Central Bank statistics?

A: The Eastern, Northern, North Central and Southern provinces have the climatic and geographical conditions conducive to sugar cultivation. Even in areas such as Hakmana in the south, sugar was cultivated in the early years of the twentieth century.

There were extensive sugar cultivations in Kantale, Hingurana, Sevanagala, and Pelawatta. Altogether 30,000 ha had been cultivated with sugarcane and over 25,000 families were engaged in sugar cultivation.

The sugarcane industry was running at a profit with sugar molasses and other byproducts being produced at the factories prior to the privatisation in 1992 by the R. Premadasa government. Twenty percent of the country's sugar requirements was produced locally.

A sugarcane cultivation

Harvesting sugarcane

Q: The privatisation of some of the public ventures proved successful while others were total failures. What really happened to the Hingurana, Kantale, Pelawatte and Sevanagala sugar factories after the privatisation?

A: Sugarcane industry needs scientific and technologiical knowhow. Hingurana and Kantale factories were sold out to two Colombo sugar traders at a very low price by the R. Premadasa government in 1992. This was the true turning point of the sugar industry in Sri Lanka. Unrest among the factory workers and sugar cultivators hindered the functioning of the factories under the private management.

At that time it was rumoured that the businessman who bought one of the two factories for only Rs. 8 million later sold its machinery for Rs. 33 million to Malaysia for scrap iron. Pelawatta and Sevanagala sugar factories too faced the same fate until advent of the new government in 1994. Although the sugar production of Sevanagala factory has gradually dropped after 1994, the Pelawatta factory maintained a better production level under the restructuring programe launched by the government.

Q: Sugar industry basically depends on two sources for its inputs such as factory owned sugarcane cultivations and small-scale sugarcane cultivations by individuals. How did the sugarcane cultivators respond to the repeated change of management?

A: Unfortunately the poor sugarcane farmers fell victims to the politically motivated privatisation policies of the then government. When the sugar factories were closed on account of labour unrest or other reasons the sugarcane cultivators could not sell their produce. Consequently they went for some attractive cultivations or trades.

This was the reasons for the sugarcane cultivations in Moneragala, Ampara and Trincomalee districts to die a slow death. The b light that erupted in 2007 also affected sugarcane cultivation badly.

Q: What are the prospects for reactivating the sugar industry?

A: As I said earlier, the country has all the climatic and geographical conditions conducive to sugar cultivation. The Higurana, Kantale, Sevanagala and Pelawatte sugar factories were operational until its privatisation in 1992.

According to the "Mahinda Chintana" development framework 40 percent of the country's sugar requirement must be produced on or before 2020 locally. It is a remarkable turning point of the government policy on local sugar industry. It shows the government's determination to develop the sugar industry. The State patronage is a pre-requisite for the manufacture of a commodity, so vital is sugar.

Q: What are the other inputs to develop the industry?

A: The land use plan issued by the Survey Department had clearly identified the lands suitable for sugar cultivation in Moneragala, Ampara, Kantale and Trincomalee districts.

Over 90,000 ha should be cultivated with sugarcane to produce 40 percent of the country's sugar requirements.

Farmers should be encouraged to cultivate high yielding sugarcane varieties so that the present harvest of 30 to 40 mt per acre to 50 - 60 mt per acre to reach the projected targets.

The extension of the fertiliser subsidy to all crops was an admirable step taken by the government.

In India and Thailand the sugar industry is in an advanced state of development having encouraged the farmers and attracted the youth to the industry. Sri Lanka too could overcome the present drawbacks of the sugarcane sector by recourse to such methods as practised in those countries.