Reaping a better harvest

The role of academic institutes towards agricultural development:

By Prof. Athula Perera

(October 13, Kandy, Sri Lanka Guardian) The results of scientific research need to reach the farming community for which there has to be a close working environment between the two. Agricultural development is of prime importance to attain self-sufficiency in our food requirement, with lowering production cost while noting that demands and aspirations, as well as social values and farmers’ attitudes are changing, this golden opportunity should be embraced by the staff and students of all the universities to mobilize themselves to introduce scientific agriculture (especially to the areas of the North and East), for which we will require the following.

* Enrichment of the soils of large areas of arable land in the North and East that have been neglected and had deteriorated due to the conflict and due to natural disasters such as tsunami.

* seed material adapted to various local environments, especially those tolerant to drought and saline conditions.

* Biofertilizer and biopesticides to reduce the use of chemicals and ensure safe food for people.

* Irrigation methods, water resource management, pure drinking water, different sources of water for animals.

*New crop production units/methods, animal production programs including aquaculture.

* Pest and disease control systems.

* Methods for quick consultations between the farming community and the experts.

Role of the academic community

The quality of a university depends on the contribution that institute makes to the economic and cultural development of the country.

There are many examples all over the world of such institutes such as the land-grant universities (also called land-grant colleges or land grant institutions) in the USA, whose mission is to focus on teaching agriculture, science and engineering as a response to the industrial revolution and changing social class, rather than higher education’s historic core of classical studies.

The Tamil Nadu University works closely with the farming community making its extension system ‘Farmer-driven’, and ‘Market-led’ for augmenting production, productivity and income of the farming community of that region.

Our universities have many academic staff members who are well-known scientists of international repute

* They are consultants, members of national and international committees and national and international award winners.

* They are authors of excellent research work and have many innovative ideas and suggestions.

* University students come from all regions of the country and are well-versed with the local situations in their villages. They can provide valuable information as to the requirements of their folk and form strong interactions with the people of their villages and the scientific community.

* University students will be excellent coordinators for work in the relevant areas.

The role of the PGIA

Hundreds of the best resource persons in the country carry out study programs which also include research components. The academics of the Agriculture Faculty of the Peradeniya University play a dominant role in this endeavour.

The PGIA has to play a significant role in developing the country in this new era, especially in the Uthura Vasanthaya and Negenahira udanaya programs. Here are suggestions.

The P5 Project - Petrol from Straw - a gift to our people.

This project initiated by the UICIC (University Industry Community Interaction Cell) of the PGIA produced Butanol (equivalent to Petrol) from paddy straw.

The pilot project established at the Agriculture Faculty produces approximately one litre of Butanol from two kilo of straw at an approximate price of Rs. 25 per litre.

Any petrol engine (vehicle or other) can be run on this product alone or as a mixture with petrol without making any alteration to the engine.

We have already run a vehicle using this product alone. We require only 25 percent of the straw produced in Sri Lanka to meet the total petrol demand of our country.

This project was carried out solely by our scientists, using local material. There is no pollution of any kind, no chemicals used and the digested straw is an ideal animal feed or can be used as compost.

We are planning to set up commercial units in several parts of the country including Polonnaruwa, Hambantota, Ampara and other rice producing areas.

This will also provide employment to a large number of youth.

Organic food

The PGIA has established a National Centre for Organic Agriculture (NCOA) supported by the Agriculture Ministry. We propose to set up organic farms in the war-damaged areas and other areas so that youth, especially women, can be employed in a very profitable venture. Marketing aspects of the products have been planned. Training of youth at appropriate levels, will be provided by the PGIA.

Local seed material of crops suitable for the appropriate villages are available both as recommended seed of the Agriculture Department and seeds of superior varieties produced by research program of the PGIA. In the North and East region, this will be carried out jointly with the Eastern University, Jaffna University and South-Eastern University together with scientists of the Agriculture Research Stations (of the Agriculture Ministry) in these areas. Both hybrid as well as pure varieties of crops are available for cultivation. Production of specific new varieties such as those resistant to saline conditions will be carried out in a collaborative program with all stakeholders.

The “biovillage” concept is the integration of recent advances in biotechnologies with the best in traditional technologies found in the villages to improve the livelihood of rural people. It is a joint venture between the village community and the scientists, whereas much of the resources come from the village itself. It is a holistic system to use and manage resources and enable the village community to translate their skills into production and income generating activities.

The fundamental features of this concept are:

* Scientists join with the people of the village to identify the existing resources and production outputs in a village

* Use the resources of the village as much as possible

* Together with the village folk, plan out how and which biotechnologies could be introduced to enhance production

* Introduce new products that can be produced in the village

* Provide employment, especially to the womenfolk and unemployed youth of the village in a sustainable manner

Two examples, amongst many, as proposed by PGIA students are given here to illustrate this concept. Each proposal was made after conducting extensive consultations with the people of the respective villages. Some are urban areas and cities. In all cases, suggestions were proposed after carefully studying the infrastructure and other types of resources available and deciding as to what types of new technology can be introduced to these villages to improve the economic standing of the village and its people. It is, therefore, a result of living with the people, discussing and planning with them and building on what they already know and have. It is a constructive ‘bottom to top’ approach as shown by the following proposals given in a summarized form.

Example 1. Puttur (Jaffna)

In this village, there are about 45 farmer families making their livelihood by using traditional methods of farming including livestock keeping. This project proposes to establish a dairy-based biovillage implemented in two phases.

Phase 1 - Livestock farm

Every household will be encouraged and support to begin a dairy dominated, crop-integrated, small scale livestock farm including a biogas unit, involving the provincial livestock officials, livestock development instructors and gramasevakas of the village. Locally available resources will be used by the community.

The cropping land will be developed into an organic crop farm producing coconuts, vegetables and bananas, as well as glyricidia as part of the feed for cattle.

Phase 2 Dairy biocentre

In the second phase, a farmer milk cooperative society will be formed that will function as the biocentre. A small scale dairy factory will be established to purchase surplus milk which will be converted to value-added products.

Example 2 Galle

Galle has three very important income generating trades as it had been a hub of the Sri Lankan economy for over centuries in the past. These three are tourism, fishing and tea. In this project it is proposed to introduce novel concepts using modern technology as follows.

(i) The e-Tea concept proposes an islandwide electronic network for the tea industry covering all kinds of tea-based requirements such as markets, soil and plant-based trouble shooting mechanisms, trend analysis and distribution of good quality planting material. It will also include a website which will be directly linked with the Central Stock Exchange and the Colombo Tea Auctions.

(ii) The e-Fishing concept, as an information centre with a website to cover the whole fishing industry, will provide all the necessary information including fish markets, wholesale dealers and communication facilities. Training will be provided to the women to make products such as Maldive fish, jadi sauce and dried fish products.

(iii) The tourist industry will be modified with a central management plan for the eco-tourism sites available such as Hiyare, Biodiversity Village, Kottawa forest, Hiniduma conservation area, Rumassala, Bonavista coral reef and Galle Fort. The central canal system will be upgraded into a new transport facility.

The biovillage consists of the people of the village, the plants and animals of the village. It is a people-oriented, pro-nature, pro-women and pro-job-oriented bottom-to-top approach. This will be an ideal starting point to initiate development in villages of the Eastern and Northern Provinces.
Other areas

* Planning to meet hazards due to impending climate change such as rise in the sea level (causes salinization), increase in land temperatures (causes increase in water requirements, change in life cycles of pests; effect on quality of product such as tea) and increase in precipitation (resulting in floods, landslides etc.)

* Aquaculture (fresh water and marine)

* Milk and milk-based products

* Ornamental crop production; production of medicinal plants

* Business management

In all of the above, we will be using the “Biovillage” concept where the people of the relevant village will be taking an active part right from planning to the implementation and marketing stages.

The PGIA will identify training needs of the youth of the specific areas and carry out training programs at different levels of requirement. Special training program will be carried out for extension workers of all regions.

The writer is Director, PGIA, University of Peradeniya.

-Sri Lanka Guardian