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Agricultue as livelihood [3]
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Agriculture is the main livelihood for people in some Asian countries including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and the Thailand. In Sri Lanka more than 60% of people engage in agriculture production activities and connected services. A few decades ago by exporting tea, rubber, coconut and spices earned the highest foreign exchange or dollars. In addition to the above commodities Sri Lanka now exports fresh and processed fruits and vegetables to the Middle Eastern and western world. However, the position of foreign exchange earnings by agriculture products has dropped to third place now. Remittances from the migrants/ workers abroad are the highest foreign exchange earnings to the country now. According to recent statistics there are more than 1.6 million Sri Lankans work abroad. Majority of workers are women and they serve as housemaids in Middle Eastern countries. However, agriculture is the main force of the country's economy as it supplies our staple food rice for 20 million people.. Sri Lanka is almost self-sufficient in rice production and also fruits and vegetables. However, per capita consumption of fruits in Sri Lanka is lower than the quantities recommended by nutrients. The total value of the agriculture products that generate in Sri Lanka is the highest all.
Tea, Rubber and Coconut, known as plantation crops and play an important role in the national economy in Sri Lanka. Apart from the foreign exchange that brings, plantation crops generate employment opportunities to the mass. These crops found as large plantations and manage by companies. Different categories of workers including field officers and laborers are employing in these companies. The field officers and laborers can be treated as the farmers of these crops. The price fluctuations in these crops would not affect the workers very much as they are wage earners. When there are very big price drops the government intervenes and helps to make adjustments. Young people like to work in this sector as there is no uncertainty of income and also rewarded with a lump sum or monthly pension when they reached the retiring age.
Farmers who are engaging in other crops such as paddy, fruits, vegetables and fields' crops the situation is different. Individual farmers have to grow and sell the products in the open market. Sometimes farmers sell their products to whole sellers through agents middle men.
Prices are usually determined in fruits and vegetables on the day's supply and the demand. In respect of rice or paddy prices are much more stable compared to fruits and vegetables but still slightly dropped during the harvesting time in Sri Lanka. The prices of fruits and vegetables fluctuate year round and thereby incomes of the farmers are also change and there is some uncertainty. There are instances farmers have to sell the products lower than cost of production. This is because of same type of vegetables received to whole sale centers in bulk. In Sri Lanka usually there is no any advance agreement with the whole sellers and farmers of fruits and vegetables as in developed countries. Taken into consideration from the past experiences in respect of income received, or the seed materials that they have at hand farmers decide what to grow. Also vegetable production can be affected by unusual climatic changes and pest and diseases etc. Therefore uncertainty of income from vegetable production is much more than any other crops. In respect of paddy profit margin is lower but uncertainty of crop failing is lower than the vegetables. This is one of the reasons why young people are not very enthusiastic to take agriculture as their livelihood. If the governments want to attract young people to agriculture these uncertainties have to be dealt with proper solutions..
Also the size of the land available for a farmer is limited in Sri Lanks. Average vegetable farm is around 1/5 of hector. And most instances available land is not sufficient to generate income for a family to lead a decent life. Especially in vegetable production land preparation, planting, harvesting etc are carried out by manually. Due to small size of the fields use of big machinery is not profitable. Also machines can not be used in some farmer fields due to the setup or the location. This is also draw back and may one reason to young people moves away from the agriculture. Sri Lankan Government has realized some of the short comings and now making some adjustments. Efficient marketing system also helps to increase farmers' income.
A few whole sale marketing centers were opened recently with necessary storage facilities in order to compete in prices of perishable commodities. This is very positive step towards get away from middle men in vegetable and fruit marketing. Then the farmers can get higher prices for their products. Also government is buying rice or paddy at fixed prices in order to keep the paddy prices realistic value.
Efficient and low-cost transport and preplanned vegetable production schedule can reduced the over production. In Sri Lanka we have extensive railway lines covering most of major agriculture production areas. Also government is planning to build new railway lines cover the other production areas. However, still we have not fully used the railway in transport goods. Transporting goods by railway is much cheaper than transport by trucks. Very small quantities of fresh vegetables and fruits export to Middle Eastern countries. The quantity is less than one percent of the production. There is potential to expand this and export vegetables to Weston countries. Farmers could fetch higher prices for the products if they can produce fruits and vegetables with required standard. This is a other scheme that can workout for increase farmers income. In order to attract young people to agriculture the government can device a system to pay compensation for crop fails and pension scheme for farmers. I think people will take agriculture as their livelihood if it is profitable and income is sufficient for comfortable living. For this governments have to play major role.