The Plantation sector is thanking the President for giving industry a professional politician in Ramesh Pathirana as the Minister of Plantation Industries.
It is very timely to discuss the profitability of the industry today with the new cabinet of ministers being appointed. A book written by me, titled as Sri Lanka Plantations - A USD 10 BN Industry, was presented to the Minister no sooner he was appointed to the Ministry for the first time.
In that, we have pointed out the potential of the industry in a 90 B USD GDP of Sri Lanka. We need the help of the government to achieve these dreams of planters.
The true impact of clever politicians getting into the top government positions should reflect through the Per Capita Improvement Indicators of the people of a country. Our goal is to achieve 10,000 USD before 2025.
Since the main assets of a plantation are the lands, our employees, the government, must support the industry to achieve the PCI goal through industry-friendly policies and services. We will be happy to acknowledge the societal gains of political leadership. This potential of the private sector to the above thinking is still to be achieved. This is what the PM and the President is saying repeatedly.
This is much more than the anti-social elements could do a government by stopping the growth of the economy so that they can achieve their ulterior motives through created poverty. The slogans against oil palm, although they look patriotic, the science teaches us that they are sugar-coated cyanide tablets. So far all the governments have failed to re-examine the famous CEA report and ban it if the report is merely a collection of uninvestigated short stories.
Wherever, there are people at work the Human Resource Management Policies and concepts must be heavily used. It is sad to note that even the crop research stations through their policies and recommended practices forget to address the human factor that does the job to the desired standard. Furthermore, we have a right to know the value created by the Ministry at the end of each season. Especially the Plantations Ministry can showcase both the monitory and social benefits contributed during each season towards the national economy. The need for such a system is very urgent.
A few months later, after handing over my book, both the Secretary and the Director Planning of the Ministry has successfully collected NPV and IRR values (calculated at current rates) of all crops which must be commendable. Both and the agro-economists of main commercial crop research stations and the department of agriculture deserve a bouquet of roses for going beyond the call of duty having understood the true need to support the national economy than ever before. The data collected must have shown that the ministry is sitting on a huge time bomb. It is unfair to blame the Minister when that happens. We are requesting both the President and the Prime Minister to take due note of what we are saying with the view of strengthening the performances of the sector.
The Ministry must be making use of these invaluable set of information to develop effective policies which are the prime duty of a ministry. Since the money is made in the field and not in offices the policy must aim at improving land productivities and increasing the earning potential of the unit area of land. We suggest an indicator like profit per hectare per annum will be a reasonable indicator that will be acceptable to all. The Ministry must help the plantations to achieve their potential. However, this is yet to happen in the Sri Lankan scenario, not because of a deficiency of the Ministry employees but because of weak political leadership. “Right People Drive Business” and we trust the Minister will fulfil this need without any delay.
The decision regarding oil palm is already two years overdue. The companies imported seeds on the approval of the government. Neighboring India is planting OP in two million hectares. They will never undertake a giant project even with a lessor rainfall compared to ours if such a project leads to an increasingnumber of cancer patients or environmentally damaging.
On the other, all countries cultivating OP has national standards. The RPCs have already spent over Rs. 27 billion on the project. National standard of OP is the solution that will be acceptable to all parties. Enough smallholders are waiting to cultivate if approval for the crop is granted. This crop has given the opportunity to daily paid plantation workers to earn more than 60,000 per month on an average. We believe that the negative social perception that was allowed to be grown through serious fake reports by the previous government was merely to take political revenge against Rajapaksa’s.
If the plantations industry collapses due to illogical political decisions, there will be about 1.2 million to lose their jobs. The prices received by plantation crops are cyclical and they must have a crop like oil palm to act as a buffer when the prices of certain other crops come below the cost of production. The Ministry should not leave room for such a disaster. The looming threats already existing against plantation crops can easily be seen through the data collected by the Ministry already.
We earnestly request both the Prime Minister and the President to help the Minister in the case of oil palm cultivation which has a huge potential to improve the Per Capita Income of the employees as well as the smallholders alike.
The writer is Lalin I. De Silva who is the former senior planter and agricultural advisor.
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