Universities, actively engaged in agri research, now take part in agri fairs and exhibitions
Many people who man stalls of exhibitions and fairs in Colombo lack professionalism, display the wrong attitude – more like a devil-may-care-, and are not attentive when questions and clarifications are sought from viewers and members of the public.
These comments were made by Malik de Alwis, President, Food Processors Association of Sri Lanka at the awards ceremony of the Pro-Food, Pro-Pack, Ag-Biz Exhibition 2016 held last week in Colombo.
Marketing skills of those manning stalls are very important, he noted and asserted that even attire is vital – the uniform, caps and of corporate colours are advantageous, he indicated.
At the ceremony, a special feature has been several universities in the country participating in the exhibition and winning awards. Making a reference to this feature, Mr. De Alwis said that this category ‘Universities, Educational Institutions and Research Institutions’ was created to encourage researchers who have developed new products and lift these products with innovation and make them commercially viable.
Among the other winners – under the Institutional Category – Best Stall was University of Peradeniya; Most Innovative Product – Sri Jayawardenapura University; and Commercially Viable Product – University of Peradeniya.
On the sidelines of the ceremony, the Business Times (BT) asked Rizvi Zaheed, Chairman, National Agribusiness Council and Managing Director, Hayleys Agriculture about the present-day plight of the farmer. He noted that there is a silent revolution in the country’s agricultural sector where the farmer is using IT and mobile telephones to learn about new market trends, focusing on market-oriented cultivations.
Specially, he said this is visible in the vegetable and fruit cultivations. Major exporting companies are increasingly outsourcing from the farmers and there are more than 20 such companies, Mr. Zaheed said adding that these numbers are ever growing.
Unfortunately due to the drought agriculture last year was able to contribute only 10 per cent of the GDP and if the situation continues the farmer becomes poorer and if not corrected would have serious implications on food production, food security and also importantly food nutrition.
Agriculture has to be sustainable first to the farmer with a good income for the present and for the future and for the sustenance of large companies, SMEs and their intermediaries, he said adding that part of these reasonable returns could be reinvested on new technology.
He said that as the Chairman, National Agribusiness Council for the last three years he has been taking steps to introduce new and innovative technologies to the farmers, high yielding seeds and planting material and the council has been somewhat successful at least in paddy self-sufficiency in the country. But he said this is yet to be achieved in the fruit and vegetable cultivation.
More and more farmers are taking up fruit and vegetable growing and if one looks at the varieties there are tangible results. Dependency on old traditional crops are fading away, as the farmer is now focusing on new varieties which are more profitable such as asparagus, various types of mushrooms, broccoli, bell pepper, baby corn and fruits such as dragon fruit, kiwis, etc has increased. These new varieties are now seen in the village polas (fairs) as well as in supermarkets, he pointed out.
Farmers involved in these new varieties of fruits and vegetables enjoy higher profit margins than what they earned earlier.
Farmers earlier grew crops based on historical trends or what their neighbours were growing. In the past there were situations of tomatoes, pumpkins or lime being destroyed due to over production.