{"id":49637,"date":"2016-11-15T23:55:15","date_gmt":"2016-11-16T03:55:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=49637"},"modified":"2016-11-16T15:02:48","modified_gmt":"2016-11-16T19:02:48","slug":"govt-agriculture-policy-may-dispossess-small-scale-farmers-and-boost-large-scale-commercial-agriculture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=49637","title":{"rendered":"Govt Agriculture Policy May Dispossess Small-scale Farmers and Boost Large Scale Commercial Agriculture."},"content":{"rendered":"

By Lasanda Kurukulasuriya<\/strong><\/p>\n

The first subject heading in Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake\u2019s 2017 budget speech was Agriculture which he said was a priority \u201cgiven its importance to the economy, society and way of life.\u201d He spoke of transforming agriculture from \u201clow-yielding, low income, few crop dependent subsistence agriculture to commercial agriculture, raising income levels and developing small scale producers into big exporters.\u201d A variety of proposals followed which, we are led to understand, are intended to uplift the lot of the 2.5 million strong farming community, most of whom cultivate small plots of a couple of acres at most. <\/p>\n

Looked at together with the prime minister\u2019s policy statement of 27th Oct. and other proposals elsewhere in the speech, there is reason to question whether this transformation will take place. Or, whether the envisaged measures will in fact result in the exact opposite \u2013 the mass dispossession farmers, compelled to abandon farming and sell off their plots out of indebtedness. <\/p>\n

Are the small scale, subsistence agriculture farmers Karunanayake speaks of, the same set of people that will benefit from the commercial agriculture that is to be encouraged, and for which all the incentives are being provided? Or are these two different sets of people? Is there reason to believe that the beneficiaries of the loan interest subsidies, tax relief, infrastructure such as warehouses, cool storage etc on offer in this budget, will be big corporations with the kind of capital required for commercial-scale agriculture (agri-business), and not the poor people in the countryside growing paddy or vegetables on small plots \u2013 which is the image associated in this country with the word \u2018farmers?\u2019 <\/p>\n

Most agricultural land is owned by the state, with farmers cultivating it on some form of lease or permit. Over the past several years there have been reports from time to time of the government\u2019s distribution of freehold title to people who have been occupying various lands and properties on some basis, short of outright ownership. The budget 2017 too speaks of transferring \u2018public housing to dwellers who have lived in such houses for more than 15 years\u2019 and giving each plantation family seven perches land \u2018with clear title deed\u2019 in order to \u2018alleviate their conditions from the line rooms.\u2019 Handing out land title to various groups was carried out under the previous regime too but has accelerated now. On the face of it these measures look people-friendly and welfare-oriented, but deceptively so. The rationale behind them lies elsewhere.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no secret that the government is in thrall to the World Bank and IMF, and policy is being dictated by conditions set down by them. The increased tax burden on ordinary people is a direct result of austere conditions imposed by the IMF in exchange for its $1.5 billion loan. The government\u2019s neoliberal policy thrust on matters relating to land and other key resources is dictated by the WB imperative to integrate with the world market. The budget\u2019s encouragement of a shift in cultivation away from paddy towards producing fruits and vegetable for export comes from the WB\u2019s script. <\/p>\n

In relation to land resources the WB advocates full privatization \u2013 meaning fully marketable, freehold title, while irrigation water is viewed as \u2018a private good\u2019 that should be directed by market forces. For years it has pushed for the creation of a \u2018Land Market\u2019 in Sri Lanka that would make it possible for small land holdings to be sold and consolidated to enable commercial-scale economic activity. While receiving title may seem attractive momentarily, for farmers already burdened with debt it may well spell doom, as it could be the prelude to dispossession \u2013 either as a result of being forced to sell or having land given as collateral seized, following default on debt. <\/p>\n

\u201cClearly, it is in order to get farmers off the land\u201d says Chintaka Rajapakse, Moderator of the Movement for National Land and Agricultural Reform (MONLAR). The longstanding grassroots organisation opposes the government\u2019s move to abolish the Land Reform Commission and set up a Land Bank that would bring all land under one authority, making it possible for the government to release it for the envisaged large scale cultivation and other projects.<\/p>\n

Rajapakse says the budget proposal to release 20,000 acres from Maduru Oya right bank to provide minimum land plots of 1000 acres for commercial agriculture does not apply to the country\u2019s millions of small scale farmers. They do not have the capital required for the envisaged mechanization and \u2018high tech\u2019 methods such as sprinkling chemicals from a helicopter etc. It is big companies, both local and foreign who will benefit he says pointing to the example of Dole company in Sri Lanka that uses 60,000 hectares for mono-cropping of bananas for export. <\/p>\n

Rajapakse warns that large extents of forest reserve and some 3,000 acres of lands currently under cultivation will be lost under the budget-proposed Heda Oya irrigation and water supply scheme, for which foreign funding to the tune of Rs 20 billion is expected. <\/p>\n

The social and political fallout of the government\u2019s approach to key resources of land and water will be far reaching. Pushing people off the land without a proper alternative could be disastrous, says Ahilan Kadirgamar, a political economist with the Alliance for Economic Democracy – a group formed with the objective of ensuring that economic policies serve the people and are democratic. \u201cWhat jobs will they have?\u201d he asks. Work in FTZ garment factories and West Asian employment is not permanent, after 4 \u2013 5 years these employees would normally return to the land, he notes. \u201cWhen someone owns a small plot \u2013 say half or even quarter acre \u2013 they have some provision. When they suddenly have to come to the city, they would have to spend Rs 3000 for gas, whereas in the village they used firewood from their own garden. They might have a few vegetables, some chickens or a cow that would ensure the bare minimum to live, although they would have some other job as well. In the city they would have no proper jobs, nor this kind of rural provisioning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under the government\u2019s neoliberal project the \u2018marketisation of land\u2019 becomes important for finance capital to come and speculate and invest in, Kadirgamar explains. A lot of this finance goes into real estate. This is speculative investment that will make a big profit for the investor but is not absorbed in actual production \u2013 such as opening a factory that would employ a 1000 people for example. <\/p>\n

It may be seen that while the budget 2017 sections on agriculture are replete with phrases such as \u2018food security,\u2019 \u2018self sufficiency\u2019 etc, the actual proposals in fact undermine these goals. If government was concerned about values like food security, shouldn\u2019t it respect the rights of communities to land, water and other resources they depend on for a livelihood? The FAO\u2019s Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests, endorsed by the UN Committee on World Food Security in 2012, clearly spells out these priorities when it says:<\/p>\n

\u201cStates should take measures to prevent undesirable impacts on local communities, indigenous peoples and vulnerable groups that may arise from, inter alia, land speculation, land concentration and abuse of customary forms of tenure. States and other parties should recognize that values, such as social, cultural and environmental values, are not always well served by unregulated markets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Courtesy:Daily Mirror<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Lasanda Kurukulasuriya The first subject heading in Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake\u2019s 2017 budget speech was Agriculture which he said was a priority \u201cgiven its importance to the economy, society and way of life.\u201d He spoke of transforming agriculture from \u201clow-yielding, low income, few crop dependent subsistence agriculture to commercial agriculture, raising income levels and …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Govt Agriculture Policy May Dispossess Small-scale Farmers and Boost Large Scale Commercial Agriculture.’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49637"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49637"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49637\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49653,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49637\/revisions\/49653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}