Rice is Sri Lanka’s staple food and the main food crop cultivated in Sri Lanka. It would not be incorrect to say that at least half the population is dependent directly and indirectly on paddy or rice cultivation.
But rice cultivation in Sri Lanka and elsewhere in Asia faces a multitude of challenges as it hinges to a great extent on rainfall. Being a plant that loves water, any drought is often disastrous to paddy cultivation. Conversely, flooding can also wipe out hundreds of acres of paddy in just a few hours.
Climate Change has thus become one of the biggest factors in paddy cultivation. Extreme weather events can wreak havoc with many crops and even more so with paddy. In recent years, Sri Lanka has been badly affected by extreme weather events. In 2017, as a result of floods and droughts in different parts of Sri Lanka, there was a shortfall of 44 percent in the amount of rice needed by the country.
But that is not the only issue affecting paddy cultivation - stagnation in yield growth, high production and labour costs, low private sector investment and poor mechanization and technology adoption among farmers are also prominent.
In this context, the pact inked by Sri Lanka with the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines in the presence of President Maithripala Sirisena is a landmark development in the country’s agriculture sector. This is a comprehensive work plan to achieve the country’s rice self-sufficiency goals through joint research for development projects in the next five years. The signing, held at the IRRI Los Banos, Laguna headquarters was also witnessed by IRRI’s Director General Matthew Morell. It is heartening to note that President Sirisena, who hails from an agricultural background himself, has taken a personal interest in this matter.
This is the latest move in the Sri Lanka-IRRI relationship that dates back more than 50 years which started with improved rice varieties and germplasm exchange, capacity building, and technology transfer. By 2009, around 95 percent of Sri Lanka’s rice land had been planted with improved rice varieties.
The Sri Lanka-IRRI five year Work Plan will compliment and help implement the new Sri Lanka National Plan for the Rice Sector. Sri Lanka’s own Rice Research Institute at Bathalagoda will be the focal point for the programme. The plan is guided by 10 priority themes which will serve as the framework for joint collaborative research for development (R4D) pipeline projects aimed to enhance the resilience and viability of Sri Lanka’s national rice sector.
According to officials, the new work plan will focus on developing high-yielding and climate resilient rice varieties with multiple tolerances to various stresses, genomics-based breeding technologies, nutritious and value-added rice, capacity building and mechanization, among others. The project will also promote more robust seed systems, and sustainable farm management practices. Modernisation and mechanization is essential – many other Asian countries have a far higher yield for the same acreage thanks to the use of modern technology leave alone the deployment of high-yield paddy varieties. Modernisation is a no-brainer – the tractor can easily outperform a herd of cows and a combined harvester makes easy of work of harvesting.
In this backdrop, the agreement with the IRRI is a shot in the arm for the country’s rice cultivation sector which has seen ups and downs in recent years. Sri Lanka in fact had achieved self-sufficiency in rice in certain years, leading to a glut in the market and even the suicides of a few farmers who were unable to sell their stocks of paddy. However, extreme climatic events have put an end to this situation and we had to resort to rice imports from neighbouring Asian countries at great expense.
While the Paddy Marketing Board (PMB) has done a fairly good job at procuring paddy directly from farmers, it has still not been able to eliminate the middle man altogether. These unscrupulous individuals are known to purchase paddy from farmers at bargain basement prices and sell to the trade with a huge mark-up. The authorities must step up the campaign to make the PMB the only official channel for paddy purchases, which is the only way to protect the interests of both the farmer and the consumer. In any case, consumers also know the value of protecting the farmer and most people would not mind paying a reasonable, not exorbitant, price for a kilo of rice.
There should also be a clearer import policy with regard to rice. There is no point in importing rice varieties that are grown locally or can be grown locally unless there is a severe shortage in the local market. This should be part of the Government’s planned import substitution and curtailment drive. Even though democracy is all about choice, as we near self-sufficiency, imports should be limited to varieties such as Basmati, Jasmine and Calrose which cannot be sourced locally. Moreover, as a solution to any future glut, the authorities must explore the possibility of exporting the excess rice, to titillate the world’s taste buds.
Add new comment