With the regularity and frequency of the North-east Monsoon, erudite planners and agriculturists gather to formulate "A new policy for agricultural development". They ponder over endless pastries and iced coffee to produce a ponderous report. Anyone reading it could reasonably conclude that Sri Lankan planners have just discovered (or invented) agriculture! Then there is the agonizing question, "What has our Department of Agriculture, with a history spanning a century or so, done without discovering these pearls of wisdom?" The "policy" adumbrated suggests to me such synonyms as hogwash, cod wallop, cowpats and (if Mr Editor permits this)- bullshit!  So, with much more modesty than such "policy makers" and "planners" display, allow me to present a few thoughts (not as lofty as "policies") for consideration.

By perhaps an accident of history, "agriculture" in this country has become subconsciously equivalent to "paddy/rice". Similarly, our thinking essentially centres around "maha" and "yala". These two mindsets have firmly to be dispatched. Food is much more that carbohydrate. With technological improvements available, water (and irrigation) can be much better managed than by reliance only on rainfall. Paddy is one of the most profligate users of water and our traditional cultivation methods are terribly wasteful of this commodity which often does not come at zero cost. If carbohydrate is the dominant need, are there other options for higher output with less outlay? I recall reading about an East Asian root crop (a dasheen or taro) reputed to yield some 30 tons of edible carbohydrate per acre in a three month crop grown under conditions strikingly similar to flooded paddy. There are doubtless other examples of attractive root crop options. Jak and breadfruit (which has the other great advantage of self propagation through root suckers) are impressive suppliers of food in addition to a multitude of other uses. Should not these and other options be considered to meet future insatiable demands for bulk food that are certain to come? The experience of countries like Israel have eloquently demonstrated that there are other alternatives to "praying for rain" to meet crop irrigation needs. "Crop rotation" and "crop diversification" as means to widen our production portfolio, remain largely as mere pompous words. Scant attention to fuel, fodder and fertilizer from biological sources is chronic.We must be unique as a country with pretensions to livestock and animal husbandry, who expects success without concurrent intense attention to grass, maize and manioc!

Have our pundits pointed out that a campaign for intensifying dairy production is incompatible with a desire to curtail animal slaughter? It is an inconvenient biological fact that for each heifer (nearly), a cow brings forth a bull calf ? No good talking about romantic visions of draught animals to replace tractors in this 21st century, nor vague visions of compost - there being enough bullshit around already (pardon the French!)  

Talking of carbohydrate, should not potato cultivation as a commercial proposition be abandoned in favour of other options? Simply because, the foreign exchange costs of fertilizer, pesticides and seed can easily procure all the eating potatoes we need from better equipped sources. (Background assumptions: our yields are 6-10 tons per acre, good yields elsewhere are 20-30 tons; at peak harvest times, Bangladesh for example, retails consumption potatoes at some (SL) =/18 cents per pound!: the ideal latitude for potato cultivation is around 20 degrees and we are a mere 7 degrees north)! This is not to say that potatoes are not a delightful food, that a 100,000 potato farmers should be condemned to starvation, nor that one should not grow potatoes as a curiosity in ones home garden!

A triangle roughly transcribed by Negombo - Ragama - Kalutara presents hundreds of acres of abandoned land - largely in unproductive marshes. If drained, the soils may be good (witness patches in Muthurajawela), sunshine is plentiful as is water, the urban markets are easily accessible. This is an ideal scenario for vegetables and other market garden crops. If, as is optimistically expected, the North-east hostilities cease soon, some 100,000 soldiers will be tossed into the labour market. Transformed from a relatively comfortable (but admittedly dangerous) life to potential idleness, deprivation and poverty, gainful employment is a vital need. If unprovided, these able bodied youth, trained to stealth and killing, possibly armed with guns spirited away at demobilization, will present an unimaginable hazard to orderly life. Can this potential labour and idle assets of agricultural resources be matched?

These are just a few random thoughts which it is hoped will stimulate a discussion and a pooling of proposals which may be of immense value to our policy makers and planners in their deliberations.