This is in sharp contrast to the decade before independence and for nearly three decades after independence. Agriculture was the priority sector then and there were impressive gains in agricultural production and productivity. Agricultural production and productivity have been quite inadequate in the last decade. Agriculture has dragged down our economic growth. Agriculture grew by only 2.5 percent during the 1990-99 period. In 2000 it grew by only 1.7 percent and in 2001 it declined by 1.7 percent. No doubt climatic factors were responsible for last year's set back, but the longer period analysis shows a virtual stagnation in several crops and even a decline in production in some.

The only significant exceptions to this performance have been tea and coconut production. Even where tea is concerned, although tea production increased by about 30 percent in the last decade, the yield on our tea plantations is much lower than those of India and Kenya our main competitors. In fact yields on our tea estates are about one half that of Kenya and about 50 per cent less than in neighboring India. Smallholder tea production is about twice that of the estates and compares very favourably with yields in other countries. The story of rubber is indeed a sad tale.

Last year we recorded the lowest level of production in the history of the industry. Rubber production has been declining for quite sometime. Current rubber production at 86 million kilograms is 23 percent lower than what it was in 1990.

Paddy production has shown some increase in recent years, but it has not been very pronounced. Although paddy production reached a peak of 2868 million metric tons in 1999, it was only about 2 percent higher than the production achieved in 1995. Paddy production declined to 2859 metric tons in 2000 and dropped further to 2.69 million metric tons in 2001. The fact that last year's production was only 8 percent higher than 17 years ago in 1985 and lower than the paddy production in 1994 and 1995 is an indication of the sluggishness in paddy production. Although paddy yields in Sri Lanka are higher than in South Asia and a number of other rice producing countries in Asia, yields are nowhere near the potential yields. Our national yields are around 3.6 metric tons per hectare. This is about a third of potential yields. While it is not realistic to raise yields to the potential 10.5 metric tons, an increase to about 5 metric tons per hectare in the next four to five years is a realistic target. Other food crop production has declined sharply. Subsidiary food production as a whole declined from 307 thousand metric tons in 1990 to 232 thousand metric tons in 1995 and declined further to only 184 thousand metric toms by 2000.This is a 40 percent decline between 1990 and 2000 and a 21 percent decrease between 1995 and 2000.

Production has decreased in nearly all the main food crops in the last six years. This is the case for potato, chilies, red onions, green gram, black gram, maize and soybeans among others. The decline in Soybean production is startling, 75 percent less than in 1995. Similarly potato production fell sharply by 40 percent from about 82 thousand metric tons in 1995 to 48 thousand metric tons in 2000. However potato production increased in both 2000 and 2001 by around 19 percent each year. The high level of protection is generally considered the reason for the resurgence in potato production. There has been an increase in production in only a few other food crops, notably kurakkan and big onions. The low yields of most of our crops have been heightened in the latest Annual Report of the Central Bank. The tragedy of Sri Lankan agriculture is that it is performing well below its potential. In all crops, including tea, productivity is well below the potential yields. If the yield gaps were reduced by even 50 percent in the next five years, it would give a big boost to the economy. This must indeed be the prime objective of agricultural policy. There has been a mistaken view in the last one and a half decades that agriculture's contribution for the country's development is no longer significant. Perhaps it is this mistaken view that has led governments not to take agricultural development as seriously as in the past. If agriculture is neglected, it will place severe strains on the economy.

We hope the rhetoric will result in the government developing a plan for agricultural development and channeling adequate resources to develop an institutional capability to implement such a plan effectively. Step motherly treatment of agriculture cannot be expected to yield the needed results.

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