A little bit of sunshine

Saturday 29th October, 2022

There seems to be no end to bad news casting a pall on this country. Reports that provide some uplift are hard to come by, but a story that adds a little bit of sunshine to an otherwise dreary, grey day has been reported from the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC), of all places. The CMC has come to be synonymous with waste and corruption, lethargy and dereliction of duty. But its cultivation project has become a success, we are told. Not many expected that food-growing programme to reach fruition, when it was launched with great fanfare, a few moons ago, but the CMC has proved its critics wrong; newspapers have carried pictures of some CMC workers harvesting vegetables.

It may be argued that the CMC has to concentrate on maintaining public services efficiently instead of undertaking what should be left to the agricultural authorities. But given the present circumstances and the need for increasing the national food production, the CMC has set an example to other local government institutions.

Dire warnings of an impending food crisis jolted the government into launching a national cultivation drive, but it has since lost interest therein, as is its wont. The threat is real. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has led to a sharp decrease in the global grain supply, and some countries have restricted food exports as a result. Locally, a disastrous fertiliser policy has taken a heavy toll on the agriculture sector, and it is only natural that a need has arisen for a nationwide cultivation drive.

Agricultural experts inform us that before utilising more land for food cultivation, we have to reduce post-harvest waste, which is said to be as high as 40%, and develop storage and transport facilities to prevent huge drops in the food supply and the resultant price hikes. Most parts of the country experience shortages of vegetables and high prices thereof despite bumper harvests in the food-growing areas.

Farmers often protest, unable to sell their produce, which they even destroy in public, while many people are starving or skipping meals elsewhere due to high food prices caused by supply shortfalls. Successive governments have not cared to put in place systems to help store vegetables and fruits properly and transport them to other areas, where they are in short supply.

Thus, the need for cultivating more land could be obviated if post-harvest waste is curtailed and the existing distribution network developed for the benefit of both the farmer and the consumer. Such measures will help not only make vegetables and fruits available at affordable prices throughout the country but also prevent politicians from helping their henchmen grab precious peripheral forests on the pretext of increasing national food production.

If the government gets its act together on the agricultural front, state institutions including local government bodies will not have to use their premises for cultivation purposes. However, until such time, other local government institutions should be asked to emulate the CMC and help increase food production; cultivable land should not be allowed to lie idle if they are not located in ecologically sensitive areas. Most of all, if such cultivation projects become economically viable, they are likely to make the local government institutions realise the need to turn municipal waste into compost thereby reducing stress on landfills. Some of them have already begun experimenting with compost manufacture, and they deserve state assistance. The Bandaragama Pradeshiya Sabha introduced a successful waste management project, some years ago, with the help of the Solid Waste Management Authority (Western Province) and the Ministry of Environment, and produced compost.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe has recently lamented that some local government institutions do not break even. They may be able to increase their revenue through proper waste management, the manufacture of compost and food cultivation without being a burden on the public.