"People are often apt to remark that the expenditure incurred in keeping a State Department of Irrigation going is not worth the while, and that cultivation would be all the better for its nonexistence. This, of course, is not counsel born of reflection. Much of the difficulties of cultivators is without doubt due to themselves. Neglect of their distributory channels, damage caused to bunds by the habit of loosing their cattle to graze on them, the unfortunately frequent practice of late sowing prevalent among some cultivators, and generally, remissness in the observance of the well-known rules of cultivation are the real source of much of the trouble. The best use of the water made available by the works constructed and maintained by the State can hardly be made without the fullest co-operation on the part of the cultivators, and, in these seemingly little matters also, much good can result from the exercise of a little more thought and a little less selfishness."

— D.S. Senanayake

Comment: It is indeed a sign of the pernicious character of the political economy that whenever sections of the state apparatus are found inconvenient by capital, the political intervention takes the form of making those sections unprofitable. While there is no argument that there is much wrong with the state, it has to be understood that the easiest thing also happens to be to blame the state. For example, it is no secret that in the very name of collective responsibility and decision-making, as in the case of the much celebrated Farmer Organisations, co-opeation among cultivators is relentlessly subverted. Equipped with this orchestrated failure, "experts" are fully empowered to point the finger at the state. The logic is simple: dissolve the state and the farmer is rendered totally vulnerable to exploitation. Either that, or, as is happening today, encourage the state to dissolve itself by ensuring that state-dissolvers come to power and remain in power. Recovering identity, lifestyle and livelihood in this context, it is interesting to note, also hinges on the recovery of the co-operative ethic, not just in cultivation but in political engagement as well. (M.S)