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| Sunday, 26 March 2006 |
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Maha harvest rice in Cargills supermarkets for New Year From Elmo Leonard in Dehiaththakandiya
Today, in the dry zone village of Nikwatalande, Dehiaththakandiya in the Mahaweli C division, 300 kilometres from Colombo, farmers and their families brave the scorching sun to harvest the Maha rice crop. More women than men use sickles to harvest the golden paddy, amidst pomp, pageantry and the singing of traditional Sinhala harvest songs. Dehiaththakandiya is 90 percent dependent on rice and 10 percent on vegetables, farmers said. It is the money obtained from rice harvests which is the socio-economic insurance, here, until the next harvest. Dehiaththakandiya, up to 1984 was just another waste land dry zone expanse, where roaming chena farmers burned down all vegetation to cultivate kurakkan grain and vegetables as long as the soil remained fertile, and set their traps for wild boar. Such harvest day fanfare has never been surpassed, with the arrival of a private sector entity to purchase 10 percent of the paddy at the market price. The attempt of the Mahaweli Authority is to wean away the unscrupulous middleman who is known to pay a pittance, farmers said. In time, Cargills Food City (CFC) who now buys 450 tonnes per month, here, would like to purchase 25 percent of Dehiaththakandiya's rice crop for distribution in their supermarket chain, agricultural manager for Cargills, Haridas Fernando said. Dehiaththakandiya's rice cultivation is fed by the Bihiri Suruwa Wewa, irrigation tank as every village here is linked to a small tank fuelled by the diverted Mahaweli river.
The Maha harvest is the larger of the island's rice crops; the Yala harvested in August is smaller. But, when water for irrigation is plentiful, in the dry zone, more than two crops of rice can be grown. Yet, before CFC stepped in to purchase part of the paddy crop here for sale in their supermarkets, the Mahaweli C division was known as the place which produced a low quality of rice. The farmers are now instructed on what varieties are needed by the consumer and they put out one of the best qualities of rice produced in the country, being samba, steamed samba, keeri samba, nadu, kakulu and other varieties. Cargills claims that these new varieties of rice from the Maha harvest will be on their supermarket chains during the coming Sinhalese and Hindu New Year. The CFC supermarket chain includes 74 Food City outlets, one Big City outlet and 15 express stores, throughout the island. The Mahaweli Authority, business development manager, here, E. A. Premeratne said that since farmers from all over Sri Lanka were settled in Dehiaththakandiya from 1983-84, the cultivation of rice has come a long way. Dehiaththakandiya gives an average of 90,000 tonnes of paddy per harvest. With new strains of seed introduced and fertiliser applied, the yield is six tonnes per acre from 3-4 in the past. The mills here earlier worked three hours per week. Now the converted large scale mills with new technology works full day with high output. The Central Bank lends to other banks at 6 percent and these banks lend to the farmer at 8 percent interest for forward contracts in purchasing rice, president, Mahaweli Rice Producers' Association, Hemal Gooneratne said. Agricultural colonisation schemes get overcrowded, and already this situation is apparent, here, a case in point being Anura Bandara, a father of three, living on government owned land and selling his labour when there is work here, or moving to Colombo to work in the construction industry, while his family stays behind. Bandara was a vegetable farmer in Walapone, Nuwara Eliya, before he came here, to purchase land. Even his relations who settled down here, in 1992 could not help him, with all the land sold or given out. Cargills have projections of purchasing milk from farmers here, Fernando said. Cargills buys 20,000 litres of milk a day mainly in the coconut triangle, in places such as Nocheheni, Kandy, Nuwara Eliya and Badulla milk that is purchased go into seven chilling centres and is turned into Cargills ice creams. Cargills buys vegetables also fruits such as pineapple and papaya from the Mahaweli H system. Also, fruits such as woodapple, mango, melon and other fruits from other parts of the country are for sale in their supermarkets. The fruits purchased also go into the Kist fruit processing plant, they
purchased over three years ago to produce jams, cordials, sauces, chutneys
and preserves, Fernando said. |
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