Organising the organic
The need for “vasa visa nethiahara” is there in every household and the President is leading the national endeavour to make Sri Lanka organic in its food production drive. Reminds me of “Green Bhutan” – another massive national endeavour. Are we ready? Are the plans in place? To make Sri Lanka organic a massive plan is required and needs to be implemented stage by stage, step by step.
National Information Centre / database
To start with, we need the baseline information – who is doing what, where and how? We need to establish an Information Centre that will have the national database. It will gather and provide information, give publicity and carry out awareness programmes throughout the country. Right now it is all mixed up like an organic mallung. All types of information is “running around” all over the place. No one knows where to go!
Traditional knowledge and National Focal Point
Organic agriculture is based on traditional knowledge. Where is this knowledge? We need to find this valuable information and validate it. Day by day this valuable information is being lost. It is validated traditional knowledge that has to be used. Who is going to do this? There has to be a National Focal Point (NFP). It is best the President nominates this or even keeps it in his office. If not, there will be so many “aithikarayas” (apitamai), so many cooks.Traditional knowledge has to be collected, recorded (audio, video, hard copy, soft copy), validated and available in the database. India started this many decades ago.
Compost and Biofertilizer
Compost is an important ingredient in organic agriculture. Compost bins are good for home-garden agriculture. I saw many years ago, somewhere in Ampara, compost being made on a commercial scale in a well-organized manner. All we need to do is to replicate this throughout the land. Of course, there will be “panditayas”, experts, consultants etc. who will pose numerous queries such as “will there be heavy metals?”,“ What is the quality? “Will the quality vary?” etc. etc. Yes, they may be valid and relevant, but let us start first and then sort out these problems at the beginning or as we go on. If not, we will never get out of this organic mallung. We need to produce compost on a commercial scale – there is no other way. The same concept holds for biofertilizer as well. There is enough information and local expertise to handle this issue.
Biopesticides / National Centre
Biopesticides are required to prevent/control pest attacks. This information comes from traditional knowledge. Much research has been carried out in this area. However and unfortunately, it has not proceeded beyond a scientific publication. We need to identify a National Centre to collate this information, find the experts and continue the work in order to produce the necessary biopesticides as and when required.
Other issues
There are several other important issues that require proper planning such as certification, marketing etc. The expertise is available locally.
Conference
It is necessary to regularly meet, discuss and debate the various relevant issues.
The first conference should relate to the status quo and planning the way forward. It should be attended by the Head of State, relevant Cabinet Ministers, Provincial Governors, Provincial Ministers, Heads of relevant Institutes, relevant private sector organizations, relevant Secretaries and funding agencies such as the National Science Foundation (NSF), Council for Agriculture Research Policy (CARP) and National Research Council (NRC). These are the decision-makers. They should sit throughout the conference and not just rush in for the opening ceremony and then vanish!
It is not necessary to bring hundreds of farmers for the first conference. Perhaps Chairmen of farmer organizations can be invited.
Begin the Begin
It is best to start this endeavour in the different provinces under the guidance of the Governors. Then, different farms will have different products relevant to the provinces. There is already such an initiative started by the Governors.
A further initiative that can begin immediately is to set up model organic farms by the Sri Lanka Army, Navy and Air Force personnel.
In the early sixties, when President Kennedy was told by his advisers that it will take many decades to put a man on the moon, the President said something to the effect that “it’s alright, let us start today”. The first human set foot on the moon only a few years after that, not decades!
Let us start today with proper planning to make Sri Lanka organic sooner than later.