The Department of Agriculture was one of the few government departments that functioned away from Colombo. It was located in Peradeniya. It was one of the largest departments of government with a staff of something like 15,000. The Department of Minor Export Crops was also located in Peradeniya. So was the Department of Animal Production and Health. We were perhaps the Ministry with the largest number of departments located out of Colombo. Minister Athulathmudali was keen to visit these departments. He was also deeply interested in personally inspecting and spending time in the large agricultural infrastructure situated at Gannoruwa, Peradeniya.

These included the department’s test fields, on which various crops were being tried out on a field trial basis; The Soya Bean Research Centre; the Food Technology Centre; the Central Agricultural Research Institute; the Plant Genetic Resource Centre and others. Close by were the Veterinary Research Centre and the University of Peradeniya’s Faculty of Agriculture and the Faculty of Veterinary Science. The whole area was a very large, and almost contiguous agricultural and veterinary science complex.

Catching a week-end, we spent three days at meetings and briefings at these complexes, and visits to the Departments of Agriculture and Minor Exports. The Minister was unhappy at the appellation “Minor Exports.” His view was that this name was somewhat demoralizing and had connotations of activities that were unimportant. He thought that crops such as coffee, cocoa, cardamoms, cloves, etc., should be developed as major exports. Later he legislated to change the name to the Department of Export Agriculture.

In the course of our inspections we also visited the Peradeniya Botanical Gardens, the maintenance and running of which came under the Department of Agriculture. These meetings and field visits with Scientists, Researchers, Trainers and Administrators were most useful. It formed part of the on going dialogue that the Minister had initiated. It was for us a very enriching extended seminar during which we learned rapidly, as well as making a contribution by now, from our own accumulated stock of experience.

I wish to provide just one example to demonstrate the kind of questions that were discussed at our regular meetings with scientists and researchers. For instance, one question posed to them was why Sri Lanka’s productivity in paddy had plateaued and stagnated at around 3.6 tons per hectare. The Minister had figures of a number of Asian countries, some of whom had obtained much higher yields. The scientists were challenged, and a lively discussion ensued. Reasons given by them such as climatic and soil conditions were in turn challenged or questioned, and so the discussions went on.

One could feel that the scientists in turn enjoyed the challenge. Some of them undertook to take a fresh look at their research positions. Everyone knew that the ultimate objective was not lively debate or intellectual exercise, but discovering ways and means of obtaining greater yields from the same existing extents of land.

Agricultural Productivity Villages

During the course of these discussions many valuable ideas surfaced. These led to much thought on some of the important aspects pertaining to the field of agriculture. From this process arose the Minister’s initiative to organize Agricultural Productivity Villages. This idea was very close to the Minister’s concept of Export Production Villages which he organized when he was the Minister of Trade and Shipping. Through an integrated package of services and skills development, people of these villages were put to work producing various hand-made, and where appropriate, machine made articles of high quality for export. Boxes, cartons, and other types of objects were produced in these villages, which increased employment and income.

Based on the experience gained from many discussions as well, the Minister slightly modified this idea in its application to agriculture. He first wanted to try out things on a pilot basis. He personally inspected a number of villages and selected one in Kotmale for the production of treacle from the Kitul tree. He first ensured there was a market. He discussed with and selected a reputable private sector organization who would purchase the entire salable production. Quality standards were laid down, not only in relation to the product itself, but also in relation to bottling, labeling and so on.

The Minister had only one standard or benchmark. The product had to meet international standards and be marketable anywhere in the world. The product may be from a remote village. But its overall quality standard had to be international. There was no settling for less. The Minister believed that our villagers, with experience and if necessary, a little training Could meet those standards. The private sector purchaser was to also provide any necessary training or skills upgrading.

This was not all. The Minister’s concept had also a compulsory village development component. These included soil conservation; the planting of various types of trees in a scientific manner; looking after water resources; basic hygiene; home gardens; and investment advice and saving. It was a total integrated package to uplift that village. The resources, material, human and intellectual of the Ministry and it’s departments as well as the private sector were to be used for this purpose.

A few months later, we saw the first products of this enterprise. They were stunning. When you looked at a bottle of treacle produced under the scheme, you would have thought that it was imported from some supermarket in a developed country. The bottle, the label, and the eye-catching contents inside, vindicated the confidence the Minister had placed in the intelligence and ability of the villagers of Sri Lanka. This success led to the selection of a few more villages to produce different products. The Minister was keen to get some Japanese volunteers to work in these villages. He thought that this would inculcate more discipline and improve the work ethic. The Minister himself was up before 5 a.m. and worked very hard till he went to bed.

He saw no other way for Sri Lanka to progress except through hard work. Unfortunately, his tenure as Minister of Agriculture, Food and Co-operatives was to be a brief one of 13 months. Five years would have made a big difference. It was not to be, and many of his initiatives were not later followed up.

In the meantime, my own work and responsibilities were expanding. As usually is the case, I had to handle many other responsibilities, in addition to being Secretary to the Ministry.

They Included such things as being Chairman of the Board of the Agriculture Research and Training Institute (ARTI); the Chairman of the Council on Agriculture Research Policy; and being a member of a Secretaries Sub Committee on vetting overall public expenditure. Sitting on or chairing Cabinet appointed tender boards was often an unpleasant duty, in a climate where many tenderers who had quoted were convinced or pretended to be convinced that the tender should be awarded to them. Some of them attempted to exert pressure by going to the politically powerful.

There was even an occasion where Minister Athulathmudali disagreed with me and the Tender Board on a fertilizer tender, where we had ruled out a party, who may have stood a chance of winning the tender. The Minister being a lawyer interpreted certain conditions and responses differently to us. But we who had had long experience of sitting on scores of different tender boards found ourselves unable to agree with him. In the end, the Minister recommended our decision to Cabinet with certain caveats.

The Cabinet whilst drawing our attention to the Minister’s comments, approved our decision. It was not pleasant to have a major disagreement with your Minister, and then to find that the Cabinet had agreed with your views and not the Minister’s. But if you felt strongly enough that you were right, you had to go through with it. Mr. Athulathmudali was big enough not to let this kind of thing spoil good working relationships.

Presidential Mobile Service – Ampara

On July 14, 1989, we flew to Ampara by Air Force aircraft to attend the Presidential Mobile Service. Before departure from Ratmalana, all of us had to sign a form indemnifying the Air Force in case of death, injury, etc. We called it signing the “Death warrant.” Sometimes when the weather got bumpy and we tossed around, we wondered whether the time for the execution of the “warrant” had arrived.

At Ampara, I was put up at the Hingurana Sugar Corporation bungalow. Since sugar was also a subject under our Ministry, and Hingurana came under us, I was treated very well. They had taken trouble to make the bungalow habitable and the food palatable. Although this area was considered safe enough, we were still apprehensive of “Tigers.” In the end we had to be preoccupied with some mosquitoes, which was much the preferable alternative.

For two full days we attended to public representations, questions, appeals and even some criticisms. So did Ministers, Secretaries and officials of other Ministries. I personally had the satisfaction of attending to a number of matters, important to people who were poor. Some of them were unaware of existing government benefits, whilst others who were aware did not quite know how to access these benefits.

Some problems clearly needed addressing by more than one Ministry. There were instances, where I personally accompanied the party concerned to where the other relevant Ministry was located on the grounds, spoke to the Secretary and resolved that part of the problem. An instance I recall vividly was accompanying an obviously malnourished pregnant mother trailing along a malnourished child to where the Ministry of Health was situated, speaking to the Secretary Dr. Joe Fernando, who was instantly concerned, and arranging for them to get nutritious food supplements and other benefits on a regular basis. The Presidential Mobile Service widened our experience of the problems faced by people in rural Sri Lanka in particular. We saw and tried to grapple with problems we never saw in Colombo.

Meetings with Provincial Ministers of Agriculture

As part of the Minister’s policy of ensuring effective communication throughout the entire system and his desire to share information, discuss issues and reach conclusions, he initiated the practice of holding regular meetings with the Provincial Ministers of Agriculture. These meetings were based on a carefully thought out agenda. It so happened that many of the Agriculture Ministers were also Chief Ministers of their Province. Therefore, the meeting turned out almost to be a Chief Ministers’ meeting.

We usually met at 9 a.m. and went on till about 1 p.m. after which the Minister hosted everybody to lunch. On many occasions these meetings were held in a Committee room in Parliament, which enabled us to walk across to the Parliament restaurant for lunch. These arrangements enabled the Ministry to concentrate on the many important items on the agenda, instead of diluting its attention with social activities such as arranging lunch or tea. We also made use of the efficient arrangements Parliament had, of serving tea whilst the meeting was going on.

The meetings themselves were very useful. They led to better understanding and co-ordination. They enabled us in the Ministry to obtain a provincial perspective, whilst providing an opportunity for the Provincial Ministers to better understand what the Ministry was doing, and to discuss national policy. The meetings also provided a forum for dispute settlement. Sometimes matters became heated. On one particular occasion a Provincial Minister lost his cool, although he came from a cooler region than Colombo.

Adopting a haughty tone, he harshly criticized some of the officials of the Ministry. Even the other Ministers were somewhat embarrassed. There was really no co-relation between the weight and importance of the matters referred to by the irate Minister, and the extent of the heat generated by him. Mr. Athulathmudali deftly handled the matter, and calm was restored. After the meeting was over, the Minister walked up to the embarrassed officials and said, “Don’t worry, the man has an altitude problem,” and chuckled. Everyone who heard this did not miss the double meaning of this crack. The “altitude problem” referred to related both to the geographical altitude of the Minister’s area as well as the assumed geographical altitude lurking in a somewhat haughty, and over self conscious personality.

As this episode showed, dealing with Provincial Ministers was not always easy. A few of them thought that the Cabinet Ministry had no real role to play in a devolved area of activity, and still was at a time when the Provincial Ministers belonged to the same party as the government. A person who took this view to an extreme, was Mr. Mahindasoma, Chief Minister and Agriculture Minister of the North-Central Province. On one occasion when Minister Athulathmudali wished to take some of us along and have a meeting with the Provincial authorities, Mr. Mahindasoma said that this was not necessary and that he would attend to the problems in his own area!

Mr. Athulathmudali was not a person to be put off so lightly. He had legal and constitutional rights as Cabinet Minister, and was not prepared to surrender those rights on the advancement of some spurious argument. He was going to have his meeting in Anuradhapura, whether the Chief Minister attended or not. In the end, Mr. Mahindasoma attended the meeting and harmony prevailed. There is a point here which exceeds the importance or otherwise of a single episode. It pertains to issues arising out of devolution. I have had personal experiences of some of these issues in several Ministries.

The essence of all these comes down to the question of power and its exercise. I have had the experience of a Cabinet Minister from a Province and the Chief Minister of the Province, both belonging to the same party speaking abusively of each other to me, and each one asking me not to carry out the instructions of the other, or to listen to the other. From my not inconsiderable practical experience of working within the framework of devolution as prescribed by the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, I could say that decisions on the nature and extent of devolution is not an exercise to be undertaken lightly or without an in-depth assessment of their possible course.

Any form of devolution based on ethnic, religious or any sectarian basis would have to be most carefully crafted, with a thorough understanding of important possible implications, and an unambiguous and precise definition and delineation of powers. There is also the central point that things which look elegant in legal documents and on paper sometimes become a contentious and nightmarish mess in implementation on the ground.

(Excerpted from In Pursuit of Governance, autobiography of MDD Peiris)