Sri Lanka’s stake in the intl. agriculture debate

By Uditha Jayasinghe
Smallholder famers in developing countries, including Sri Lanka, stand to benefit from the debate for changed international agriculture and food systems.
A call for the three main food organisations of the United Nations, namely the World Food Programme (WFP), Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD), to work together came from none other than US billionaire and philanthropist Bill Gates.

Addressing the IFAD General Council in Rome late last month, Gates called for the key organisations to change how food and agriculture sectors are getting assistance and maximise usage of resources for greater success.
It was pointed out that 80 per cent of the world’s famers are small holders and despite providing four fifths of the world’s food, 70 per cent of them remain in poverty. In countries like Sri Lanka where almost all farmers are small holders the impact is likely to be more.
“If we are honest, we also know that in recent years, the international agriculture community has not done as much as it should have to fight hunger and poverty. In South Asia, the pace of productivity growth has been slowing down.”
Outdated and inefficient system
He added that the world’s agriculture and food system is now outdated and inefficient. Countries, food agencies, and donors aren’t working together in a focused and coordinated way to provide the help small farmers need, when they need it.
Gates pointed out that the rapid increase of the world’s population has made the desire for cheaper food greater and that it was up to global organisations to answer that need with greater cooperation and mobilisation of resources.
“With this vision in mind, I urge IFAD, FAO, and WFP to work together to create a global productivity target for small farmers — and a system of public scorecards to measure how countries, food agencies, and donors are contributing toward the overall goal of reducing poverty.”
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has spent over US$ 2 billion funding research to develop world agriculture and at the IFAD General Council an additional US$ 200 million was pledged. Yet for all this attention it is questionable how much of it will filter to the farmers in developing countries like Sri Lanka.
Creating constructive change
Crippled by a three-decade conflict, Sri Lanka fell between the cracks with the last country programme from IFAD being in 2002. Even though the island was one of the first countries to benefit from IFAD a new plan will only be implemented from next year, admits IFAD Country Programme Manager for Asia and the Pacific Division Ya Tian.
Speaking to Xinhua on the side-lines of the General Council in Rome Tian acknowledged that there was need to build a stronger policy discussion framework with the Government to have constructive change on the ground.
“At the moment we have five projects in Sri Lanka reaching about two million people where we are focusing on farmer access to markets, new irrigation in former war zones and gender equality. However most of the partnerships are built with the private sector and there is need to build specific success stories so we can show them as evidence of our policies and discuss with the Sri Lankan Government,” he said.
Technological breakthroughs such as climate change resistant seeds, organic farming and community development are among the plethora of assistance that IFAD can give to Sri Lanka. Nonetheless its isolation from the greater farming community significantly reduces its impact.
High costs, low yields
Sri Lanka is self-sufficient in rice but production costs are high and yields are low. It is estimated that around 807,763 hectares of land are cultivated in Sri Lanka for paddy in two seasons. More than 879,000 farmer families are engaged in paddy cultivation. This is over 20 per cent of the country’s population and 32 per cent of the employment.
Biodiversity is threatened by farmers concentrating on a handful of seed types and changing weather patterns are increasingly affecting yields. Other exports such as tea, which is Sri Lanka’s largest foreign exchange earning crop, and cinnamon are also menaced by climate change. Yet the discourse of improving international assistance to these farmer communities goes largely unheard locally.
Head of Bioversity International, the fourth top food organisation based in Rome, agrees. Director General Emile Frison is forthright in his approbation of Gates, who he insists “made a speech that puts the finger on reality”.
He went on to say that international food organisations should “focus on what they are good at so that development programmes are more integrated.” He applauded the idea of universal score cards but warned that the research to change international agriculture systems could prove costly.
“This is the first time that WFP, FAO and IFAD have come to a consensus on the need to work together. The key ingredient is bringing in interaction and building different working models. If greater pressure is put by members it would go a long way to changing working culture and habits of the organisations that govern international food systems.”
According to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a threefold increase in productivity would mean as many as 400 million people in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa would be lifted out of poverty.
Trapped in traditional ideas
Yet, for all this state-of-the-art talk, closer to home the situation remains trapped in the same traditional ideas. In early March cabinet approved Rs. 28.5 billion to purchase paddy from farmers for storage. The money is a pledge loan to the Paddy Marketing Board, District Secretaries, Cooperative Societies and the private sector to purchase paddy from the farmers during 2011/2012 Maha season.
The expected paddy harvest from Yala season 2011 and Maha season 2011/2012 is around 4.5 million MT. With the expected paddy harvest in Maha season 2012, there will be a stock of 3.2 million MT of paddy with the Paddy Marketing Board.
According to estimates, the annual consumption of rice in the country is around 3.54 million MT. and with the collection of paddy of the Maha and Yala seasons 2012, there is to be a surplus of 1.01 million MT of paddy.
Provision of Rs. 1,280 million from State banks to the Paddy Marketing Board for the purchase of paddy; provision of Rs. 1,015 million, made up as follows, to the District Secretaries for the purchase of paddy: Polonnaruwa Rs. 250 million, Matale Rs. 50 million, Kurunegala Rs. 100 million, Monaragala Rs. 30 million, Kilinochchi Rs. 70 million, Mannar Rs. 30 million, Hambantota Rs. 10 million, Batticaloa Rs. 25 million, Trincomalee Rs. 50 million, Anuradhapura Rs. 200 million and Ampara Rs. 200 million.
A provision of Rs. 15,000 million by the Bank of Ceylon, Rs. 5,000 million by People’s Bank and Rs. 1,500 million by the Regional Development Bank is to provide loans to the private sector for the purchase of paddy. Provision of Rs. 2,000 million by State banks to Co-operative Societies has been made for the purchase of paddy and to call for worldwide tenders to export the surplus of paddy.
Dismal situation
Even though such a large amount of money has been pledged, when broken down individual farmers barely earn enough to breakeven and remain trapped in poverty. For all the Government’s bravado even years after reaching self-sufficiency, the surplus is too paltry to earn the country a significant amount of foreign exchange on the global market. Sri Lanka cannot compete with large scale producers like India and have to be content with selling small contingents of rice to organisations like the World Food Organisation.
This alone shows how dismal the situation is because it is not that the Government does not try but rather its efforts have not had much effect. It is hardly surprising that of the estimated 500,000 families on Samurdhi in Sri Lanka most are farmer families.
Government-backed programmes such as ‘Divi Neguma,’ at least from the official rhetoric, are attempting to reverse this trend. Smallholder farmers are encouraged to grow food that will have export demand, but there is still a long road to tread before adequate certification and shipment channels become efficient and Sri Lanka gains a global brand for more than cinnamon and tea.
Finding a balance between exports and food security remains an unsung battle daily battle in Sri Lanka.