Farmer woes: still awaiting fertilizer grant, water :

Going Against the grain

University study reveals crisis looming … :

by Rukshana Rizwie

Is the country’s rice production in trouble due to poor fertilizer distribution and water management? Government officials are unable to clarify the issues but the country’s farmers are crying for help.

Seven months after the introduction of the new scheme nearly 25% of 1.1 million farmers in Sri Lanka were yet to receive the cash allowance of Rs. 25,000 to purchase fertilizers for the cultivation of paddy, Namal Karunaratne, the National Organizer of the All Ceylon Peasants Federation says. He claims, crops in over 30,000 acres of land have already failede due to the unavailability of fertilizers, and warned of the growing problem of irrigation water island wide.

“We were told the estimated government expenditure for the new scheme would be Rs. 37.5 billion a year. If a quarter of the farming populace is yet to receive the funds, where are those funds?” he questioned. “And the farmers who have received the funds complain, it was not proportionately disbursed.”

Pockets of resistance

Karunaratne told the Sunday Observer that there have been pockets of resistance to the methodology of the new scheme in various districts. Recently, farmers in Manampitiya disrupted traffic along the Polonnaruwa-Mahiyangana road agitating that they had received neither the allowance nor the fertilizers. They held placards and shouted slogans calling on the government to disburse the monies, stating they had been waiting for months.

The problem of irrigation water seems to be as bad, according to the farmer organization. Farmers in the Karangawa village in Amparai are reportedly complaining that their paddy lands were drying up due to the lack of water. Farmers had complained that nearly 30 to 40 acres of paddy was destroyed because officials had failed to manage the water obtained from the Karangawa tank in Amparai.

According to Karunaratne, these problems confront farmers across the country. Farmers in Hambantota, Moneragala and Kurunegala have been affected, while protests have begun in Dimbulagala, Mahadamana, Kalukele and Polonnaruwa.

Farmers are warning that the paddy harvest this season would be an low yielding since many were yet to receive the fertilizer subsidy cash allowance.

Karunaratne explained that in several instances farmers were turned away because they did not have deeds to declare their lands. They were told that subsidies would be provided to farmers whose lands were registered awith the Agrarian Department.

“These restrictive policies show that the government is disinterested in the concerns of the farming community and is trying to disengage with them,” he said. “It’s only a matter of time before farmers converge in Colombo in loin cloths, just like they did last year.”

Under the new scheme, which came into effect in January this year, a farmer was to be given a cash allowance of Rs. 25,000 for two seasons of paddy cultivation to those who cultivate on lands less than one hectare; or Rs. 5,000 for a single season for one acre of land.

A revealing University of Peradeniya study evaluating the new fertilizer scheme quotes the Government’s Agriculture Department as acknowledging that while farmers were inclined to use organic manure, the technologies developed by the Department required chemical fertilizer and other inputs.

The study, done by Prof L.H.P Gunaratne and Ryan Rienzie of the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Peradeniya, since reported that farmers would tend to use less fertilizer under the new scheme which, in turn, would weaken national paddy production. The study also quotes the Agrarian Development Department as warning that, the revised scheme to offer cash instead of fertilizers would be sufficient for rain-fed agriculture but not for irrigated agriculture.

The Peradeniya study found that funds were being misused by farmers, a concern that has been touted from time to time. Based on their analysis of the last six months, the researchers found that farmers were interested in application of Urea but not other kinds of fertilizers. They resisted using organic fertilizer as fertilizers of superior quality were expensive and transportation costs too high for them to bear.

The study reports that the Agriculture Department had advised the government to reverse the fertilizer scheme and continue with the old method until the shortcomings were resolved. The Department had recommended a coupon method with a fixed quantity of organic fertilizer.

The study also cites farmers’ co-operatives as complaining that the cash provided was not sufficient for the purchase of their total fertilizer requirement. The delays due to the transfer of funds was also time consuming. According to the study, some co-operatives had complained that in rural areas only a few shops were selling fertilizers. This forced farmers to spend time and money to search for fertilizer in the main townships. The study reports that the quality of fertilizer purchased from local stores were found to be inferior to that previously directly supplied by the Government.

The Peradeniya study cites non-governmental organizations working in rural and agriculture development as claiming that the new scheme was incapable of handling the inefficiencies of the previous scheme. The NGOs concurred with farmer cooperatives that the provision of money was insufficient and that farmers should be advised on the recommended amount of fertilizers.

Government officials see the new system as an attempt to move away from the old subsidy that has been a burden on the State coffers for decades.

Prof Jeevika Weerahewa, head of Peradeniya University’s Department of Agricultural Economics and Business Management argues that the conversion of the fertilizer subsidy to a cash grant has effectively de-linked the quantity of fertilizer supplied from the subsidy.

“This permits formation of a competitive market for fertilizer, removing the distortion created by the subsidy because farmers are now at the liberty of procuring from the sources they trust. Over the long term, de-coupling the fertilizer subsidy in this manner has opened up space for the government to proceed with gradual reform of the subsidy program without alienating the farmer community,” she noted in a recent paper.

Subsidy

The most recent system to disburse the fertilizer subsidy in the form of a cash grant could be an incremental approach towards reformation of the subsidy.”

The National Fertilizer Secretariat, the institution tasked with dispensing the funds, admits there was a delay in distributing the money and several shortcomings during the last few months since the new scheme was initiated.

“The delays were mostly to do with applications that had not been duly filled by the farmers,” a senior Secretariat official told the Sunday Observer.

“There were several instances when we had to reject farmer applications because of incorrect bank account details.” He however, adds that most of those who applied had in fact received the funds.

“At the NFS, we consider this a success despite the shortcomings, which we will now address.” When asked about the danger of a poor harvest, he conceded the delays may have had an impact, but said, it was “too early to say if there has been a significant impact”.