{"id":75431,"date":"2021-12-21T00:18:06","date_gmt":"2021-12-21T04:18:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=75431"},"modified":"2021-12-21T13:24:05","modified_gmt":"2021-12-21T17:24:05","slug":"it-is-the-next-harvest-that-will-deliver-a-deadly-blow-to-us-if-our-people-go-hungry-next-year-the-government-should-not-hold-farmers-responsible-kilinochchi-fa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=75431","title":{"rendered":"\u201cIt is the next harvest that will deliver a deadly blow to us.\u201d \u201cIf our people go hungry next year, the government should not hold farmers responsible\u201d – Kilinochchi farmers Dread First Harvest After Sri Lanka\u2019s Fertilizer Ban"},"content":{"rendered":"

By<\/p>\n

Meera Srinivasan<\/strong><\/p>\n

For Muthu Sivamohan, a farmer leader in Sri Lanka\u2019s northern Kilinochchi district, the uncertainty looming over his paddy yield, after the government banned chemical fertilizers, is only comparable to \u201ctwo other periods of crisis\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first was when Prime Minister Sirimavo [Bandaranaike] introduced import substitution in the 1970s,\u201d said the 63-year-old farmer. He vividly recalled the \u201csevere food shortage\u201d during the period, with long queues outside shops as people waited for hours to buy a loaf of bread. \u201cThere was hunger all around. We survived on king coconut and manioc mostly.\u201d<\/p>\n

All the same, offering some respite then was her government\u2019s boost to local production, especially benefiting small farmers growing vegetables and cash crops. Senior farmer representative Subramaniam Kanapathipillai recalled northern farmers garlanding Ms. Bandaranaike with chillies, in appreciation of her government\u2019s support to them. \u201cThat is why farmers here [north] of a certain generation have a soft spot for the [Bandaranaike\u2019s] Sri Lanka Freedom Party,\u201d he said.
\n<\/p>\n

Difficult times<\/strong><\/p>\n

The civil war began a decade later and lasted about 30 years as the armed forces fought the LTTE. The Tamil-majority north and east were stifled with violence, an economic blockade, and no access to national markets. \u201cThose were extremely difficult times, but we did not go hungry. We grew our own food and had enough to eat,\u201d Mr. Sivamohan said, contrasting the years of strife with the current situation.<\/p>\n

The government\u2019s overnight policy shift to organic agriculture in May this year, farmers like him fear, might slash their yield so drastically that a food scarcity may not be far.<\/p>\n

Similar fears surfaced in August, when President Gotabaya Rajapaksa declared an Emergency to ensure distribution of essential food items, seeking to prevent market iregularities and hoarding. Along with the government\u2019s bold import restrictions to preserve dwindling foreign reserves, the move saw anxious consumers lined up outside stores, invoking memories of the 1970s. The government has since eased local food distribution and removed price controls, but the cost of nearly all essential food items, fuel and cooking gas, have risen severalfold.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the government\u2019s ban on chemical fertilizer has heightened farmers\u2019 apprehensions, especially after sowing season began some weeks ago. Now, they are dreading the harvest early next year.<\/p>\n

Ketheeswaran, 37, has sowed paddy in 20 acres. \u201cIdeally, I should have sprayed the [chemical] fertilizer now, about 30-35 days after sowing. I haven\u2019t been able to do that. The crop will certainly suffer,\u201d he said anxiously. \u201cI doubt if I will get even half the yield I got last time.\u201d The drop in production that the district\u2019s farmers anticipate could impact rice consumption in the entire Northern Province, as Kilinochchi is the largest producer of paddy among the five northern districts, growing about 1.5 lakh tonnes in 2020.<\/p>\n

The problem, though, is not peculiar to Kilinochchi. Farmers across the country growing paddy \u2014 Sri Lanka\u2019s main food crop \u2014 and tea, a crucial export item, are raising alarm. Engaging over a quarter of the country\u2019s labour force, Sri Lanka\u2019s agriculture sector contributes about 8% of the GDP.<\/p>\n

Significantly, farmers in the country\u2019s Sinhala-majority south who voted for the Rajapaksas are protesting day after day, burning effigies of the Agriculture Minister, and raising angry slogans against what is arguably the most unpopular policy decision of the Rajapaksa administration in its two years in power.<\/p>\n

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, however, is determined to keep his poll promise. In his election manifesto that is now his government\u2019s policy framework, Mr. Rajapaksa promised \u201ca revolution\u201d in the use of fertilizer, with a decisive shift to organic farming and focus on home gardening. The initiative, in addition to saving dollars spent on importing chemical fertilizers, was pitched as a response to the prevalence of a rare kidney ailment<\/p>\n

However, his government did not consult farmers or experts. Challenging the government\u2019s claim that chemical fertilizers caused farmers\u2019 kidney ailments, scientists have dubbed the current crisis \u201cthe most turbulent\u201d period in Sri Lanka\u2019s agricultural history. The government\u2019s outright switch to organic fertilizer is a \u201ccatastrophe\u201d in the making, senior soil scientists Prof. W.A.U. Vitharana and Dr. W.S. Dandeniya warned in a column for the local Sunday Times, arguing that the damage to the country caused by \u201csuch short-sighted decisions\u201d will be \u201cirreversible\u201d.<\/p>\n

Amid mounting resistance, President Rajapaksa appointed a panel on green agriculture last month. Except, it did not include a single representative from farmers\u2019 organisations. \u201cThere are so many farmers\u2019 societies across the country, and they could not consult even one of us while taking such a consequential policy decision?\u201d asked Subramanian Yatheeswaran, secretary of a farmers\u2019 federation in Kilinochchi, baffled by the exclusion. Moreover, the government\u2019s supply of organic fertilizer since the ban has been erratic and unreliable, paddy farmers noted.<\/p>\n

Gradual transition<\/strong><\/p>\n

The transition from chemical to organic fertilizers, farmers and experts emphasised, ought to be gradual. \u201cWe are not opposed to organic farming, but it [the shift] cannot be overnight like this,\u201d said Mr. Sivamohan, recalling that it was during Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa\u2019s time as President that the government heavily subsidised agrochemicals. \u201cIt was in that decade that farmers became more reliant on chemical fertilizers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even the harvest early next year \u2014 one of Sri Lanka\u2019s two main harvest seasons tied to the monsoon \u2014 may not accurately reflect the impact of the policy shift, said R. Ravindrakumar from a federation of paddy farmers. \u201cSome farmers used chemical fertilizer leftover from last year. You see, we are used to war-time scarcity and intuitively stock up a little. We heard of some others purchasing it in the black market,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is the next harvest that will deliver a deadly blow to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

With no solution apparent, farmers are worried \u2013 about their next yield, as well as its impact on the country\u2019s food security. \u201cIf our people go hungry next year, the government should not hold farmers responsible. If citizens starve, it will be a shame for the country,\u201d Mr. Sivamohan said.<\/p>\n

Courtesy:The Hindu<\/em><\/p>\n

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By Meera Srinivasan For Muthu Sivamohan, a farmer leader in Sri Lanka\u2019s northern Kilinochchi district, the uncertainty looming over his paddy yield, after the government banned chemical fertilizers, is only comparable to \u201ctwo other periods of crisis\u201d. \u201cThe first was when Prime Minister Sirimavo [Bandaranaike] introduced import substitution in the 1970s,\u201d said the 63-year-old farmer. …<\/p>\n

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