Features

Sound policies a prerequisite for agriculture development –Prof. Marambe

Published

3 years ago

2020/08/13

By Ifham Nizam

The new Overarching Agriculture Policy (OAP) developed by the Department of National Planning of Sri Lanka (still to be approved by the Cabinet of Ministers) is considered a holistic approach to agriculture development covering eight major segments in the agricultural economy, namely, food crops, plantation crops, export agricultural crops, livestock and poultry, fisheries, agrarian services, irrigation, and Environment, and adequately covers climate change as a cross-cutting issue to support future development of agriculture, says Prof. Buddhi Marambe, Senior Professor-Weed Science, Department of Crop Science, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Peradeniya.

Professor Marambe is the President – Weed Science Society of Sri Lanka (WSSSL), Chairman, National Invasive Species Specialist Group (NISSG), Ministry of Environment and Member. National Experts Committee on Climate Change Adaptation (NECCCA), Ministry of Environment. In an interview with The Island he said that all in all, there were many initiatives by Sri Lanka to tackle issues related to climate change in Agriculture. “Researchers, scientists, academic private sector and practitioners in Sri Lanka have adopted such technologies introduced by the state and private sector agencies, which is encouraging. There is still more to be done. We need to keep the momentum, and review and assess what has been done in the past for the agriculture sector in tackling the dangerous climate change. The efforts that are technologically-sound should continue. With sound policies, all sectors related to agriculture should be in a position to streamline climate change concerns into their respective programmes and projects”.

Excerpts of the interview

The Island: Are you happy with the policy initiatives when it comes to climate change and adaptation on agricultural sector?

Professor: The answer is yes. Sri Lanka has laid a strong foundation to tackle issues related to climate change by adopting the National Climate Change Policy in 2012, which deals with both components in tackling climate change, i.e. adaptation (coping up) and mitigation [reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions]. Before the policy was adopted, we had a National Climate Change Adaptation Strategy 2011-2016 based on the climate vulnerability mapping on the major economic sectors done in 2009-2010 period. Later the level of climate vulnerability was assessed for the agriculture sector at district level in 2013 by the Department of Agriculture in collaboration with the UNDP, with studies now being expanded to divisional secretariat level. Scientists from the Natural resource Management Center (NRMC) of the Department of Agriculture, led by the scientists like Dr. Ranjith Punyawardena, are currently involved in such studies with the support of scientists from the other agencies. The Climate Change Secretariat (CCS) of the Ministry of Environment and Wildlife Resources (MEWR) coordinates activities related to the climate change being the focal point for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the National Designated Authority (NDA) to the Green Climate Fund. Two National Expert Committees on Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation have been established by the CCS to advise the MEWR on policy level decision making in climate change related matters, including agriculture. The country has also prepared its National Adaptation Plan (NAP) for climate change for the period 2016-2025, following the adoption of Paris Agreement in mid-2016, where agriculture and food security have been a priority consideration. The country has also developed the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) in 2016 and currently in the process of updating the same to identify actions even to minimize GHG emissions from agriculture. The Provincial Adaptation Plans to cover 9 provinces are now in the making. The state and private sector agencies that are responsible for agricultural development of the country have set their targets accordingly, giving due consideration to climate change scenarios. In the field of agriculture, adaptation is a priority to developing countries like Sri Lanka. Accordingly, promotion of climate-smart and precision agricultural technologies focusing mainly on productivity enhancement of crops under changing climate, development of ultra-short age rice varieties (maturating in about 80-85 days) which are drought tolerant or escaping drought, promoting mid-season cultivation of short-age drought tolerant food crops such as mung bean in paddy fields, adopting water saving techniques such as drip irrigation in selected crops, protected agriculture technologies, development of drought-tolerant tea cultivar TRI 5000 series to tackle climate change, crop-animal integrated farming to promote climate resilience in the agriculture systems are some examples to show that we as a country is prepared and moving forward in facing climate challenges. The new Government Policy Framework on “Vistas of Prosperity and Splendor” does not highlight the term climate change, however, adequate attention has been given to promote environmentally-friendly agriculture, which has direct implications on tackling climate change. The new Overarching Agriculture Policy (OAP) developed by the Department of National Planning of Sri Lanka (still to be approved by the Cabinet of Ministers) has considered the holistic approach for agriculture development covering eight major segments in the agricultural economy, namely, food crops, plantation crops, export agricultural crops, livestock and poultry, fisheries, agrarian services, irrigation, and Environment, and adequately covers climate change as a cross cutting issue to support future development of agriculture. All in all, there are many initiatives that have been taken by Sri Lanka to tackle issues related to climate change in Agriculture. Researchers, scientists, academic private sector and practitioners in Sri Lanka as a whole have adopted such technologies introduced by the state and private sector agencies, which is encouraging. There is still more to be done. We need to keep the momentum, and review and assess what has been done in the past for the agriculture sector in tackling the dangerous climate change. The efforts that are technologically-sound should continue. With sound policies, all sectors related to agriculture should be in a position to streamline climate change concerns into their respective programmes and projects.

The Island: About 30 per cent of Sri Lanka’s population are engaged in agriculture, do you think successive governments have done enough for them?

Prof: The labour force in agriculture in Sri Lanka has reduced from 50% in 1980 to 25.5% in 2018. The labour productivity in agriculture has been positive since 1980, which reached LKR 0.3 million in 2017 and LKR 0.33 million in 2018 (per labour unit per year). The labour involvement in agriculture has decreased owing to many reasons, specifically migration to urban and other economic sectors and mechanization in agriculture. Youth moving away from agriculture has been a popularly known reason and modernization of the sector with novel and affordable technology is the key for further improvement of labour productivity in agriculture and retention of the young and skilled labour that is attracted to agriculture. As for doing justice to the farming community by the government of Sri Lanka – I have mixed feelings. Since independence, successive governments have given priority to make Sri Lanka self-sufficient in rice with more investments in research and development. However, other crop sectors and animal production sector have not received the same treatment. Our farming community have been struggling to feed the nation. They need tangible support, not political pledges. More attention need to be paid to infuse new technology and making the technology affordable to those in the sector, to ensure increase in labour productivity and to support the livelihood of the farming community. Provision of subsidies (such as for fertilizer), price controls, and insurance schemes to support the agriculture production and productivity in the country have been key interventions by the government of Sri Lanka, to support livelihood of the practitioners in agriculture. However, timely availability of such inputs, including good quality seeds and planting material, is a must to reap richer harvests without affecting the livelihood of the practitioners. There is no need of rocket science to decide on imports of agricultural inputs depending on the seasonality of crops. What the dedicated farmers in Sri Lanka require is to have timely supply of inputs (seeds, fertilizer, pesticides, and organic matter) and an effective market mechanism. The agricultural practitioners have been flooded with many promises by successive governments, but they have been taken on a ride continuously. Since 1978, the country has been more inclined to import food requirements despite the potential of producing certain food and feed crops such maize, mung bean, green chilli, etc., and dairy cattle in the case of animal production. We have undermined our genetic potential in and biodiversity. In the food crops, with our scientists been able to develop the hybrids and improved production technologies, we are in a position to boost the productivity levels of food crops and animals considering limitations to expand land availability for agriculture. Unfortunately, limited attention have been paid to improve the livestock sector. Private-public partnership is a must to achieve productivity targets with assured local and export markets for the agricultural products. Import restrictions imposed for some food crops in crisis situations would assist in this effort however, will not be a good practice in scenarios where international trade plays a major role.

The Island: Your thoughts on food losses as waste during COVID-19 pandemic, especially in the agricultural sector?

Prof: COVID-19 made many issues that the agriculture sector has faced over many years, to surface at a magnitude that many of us did not even dreamt of. The food supply chain collapsed in the country at least for a shorter time period, not only leaving producers at a precarious position, but leaving many agencies still wondering what to be done. Closure of markets, national and regional lockdowns, issues related to transport, etc. during the COVID-19 pandemic rendered the situation more difficult to handle. The private sector itself, despite their contribution to the agricultural development of the country, was taken by surprise indicating that the so-called “engine of growth” is not prepared in order to face such a crisis. This was true for both crop and animal products, affecting both the industries badly. The government made a valiant attempt to intervene, by means of permitting food transport and agricultural operations amidst islandwide curfew and lockdown, but still failed to cope up with the situation owing to the complexity of the food supply chain, as we learned from many media reports. Panic buying resulting in empty shelves in the markets certainly would have increased food losses due to excess storage of food in homesteads, though scientifically valid analysis on this matter is not available yet. In contrary less food demand at later stages also would have contributed to food losses to a certain extent. When any supply chain collapses, it is natural that both the producers and consumers (not to forget the other players) feel the impact.

The Island: What about the perishables and 20 to 40 per cent harvest losses?

Prof: This has been a long-discussed topic with limited success in terms of practical solutions. The disruption to the food supply chain, as was evident in the COVID-19 pandemic, has only cautioned us further to look into this matter deeper in finding a long-lasting sustainable solution. Unfortunate part is that the whole society speaks of the need for reducing post harvest losses when there is a glut in the market. It is always too late – as the society including the researchers and academia, and the industry, we are not prepared to meet the challenges. We plan our cultivation well, but we do not plan for the post-harvest operations and value addition in the same manner. This is the key issue. Once again, the state and private sector organizations should chip-in at early stages of cultivation and plan for the future to support the agriculture community. Special analysis is not required to conclude that there is a glut of food products in the markets during specific time period of the year such as December, March-April and July-August. This depends on the seasonality of the crops and the way farmers carry out their cultivation aiming at harvests at times when there is a high demand for the crop produce. We cannot start thinking what to do with the excess food at the time when we have a surplus. This can only be addressed through proper planning. Enough lessons are learned from repeated mistakes. Efforts have been made to educate practitioners on the quantities required in the case of different food products during different time periods of the year. The Department of Agriculture has developed a mobile app to educate the farming community in Sri Lanka regarding the requirements and market potential of different vegetable crops, which is upgraded twice a month (every 6th and 21st day of the month). Finally it is a matter of imposing certain rules and regulations to make sure what is required, including for post-harvest processing, being produced. Proper land use planning and directives based on market mechanisms are a must to overcome such problems in the future.

Asking farmers to do value addition for a better export price will not solve the issue at all, unless the mechanism is set to support product marketing at national and global levels.

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Features

From a ‘Clash of Civilizations’ to a ‘Dialogue among Civilizations’

Published

15 hours ago

2023/11/30

Sahan Weerasooriya

A meeting of BRICS leaders

As the world continues to reel from the ‘aftershocks’ as it were of the October 7th Gaza Strip-centred savagery, what it should guard against most is a mood of pessimism and hopelessness. Hopefully, the international community would pull itself together before long and give of its best to further the cause of a political solution in the Middle East.

It is plain to see that what needs to be done most urgently at present is the prolongation of the current ceasefire, besides facilitating a steady exchange of hostages but given the present state of hostilities between the warring sides this would not prove an easy challenge.

Considering that there are no iron-clad guarantees by either side that there would be a longstanding ceasefire followed by a cessation of hostilities, what we have at present in the Middle East is a highly fraught ‘breather’ from the fighting. There are no easy answers to the currently compounded Middle East conflict but the external backers of the warring sides could alleviate the present suffering of the peoples concerned to a degree by bringing steady pressure on the principal antagonists to drastically scale down their hostilities.

If they mean well by the communities concerned, these external backers, such as the US, as regards Israel, and those major Middle Eastern states backing Hamas and other militant groups, would set about creating a conducive climate for a negotiated settlement to the conflict.

De-escalating the supply of lethal military hardware to the warring sides is a vital first step towards this end. External military backing is a key element in the prolongation of the war and a decrease in such support would go some distance in curtailing the agony of the peoples concerned. The onus is on these external parties to prove their good intentions, if they have any.

Meanwhile, major states of the South in increasing numbers are making their voices heard on the principal issues to the conflict. One such grouping is BRICS, which is now featuring among its prospective membership, countries such as Egypt, Ethiopia, Argentina, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Iran. That is, in the foreseeable future BRICS would emerge as a greatly expanded global grouping, which would come to be seen as principally representative of the South.

Since the majority of countries within the BRICS fold are emerging economies, the bloc could be expected to wield tremendous economic and military clout in the present world order. With China and Russia counting among the foremost powers in the grouping, BRICS would be in a position to project itself as an effective counterweight to the West and the G7 bloc.

However, the major challenge before the likes of BRICS is to prove that they will be a boon and not a bane to the poorer countries of the South. They would be challenged to earnestly champion the cause of a just and equitable world political and economic order. Would BRICS, for instance, be equal to such challenges? Hopefully, the commentator would be able to answer this question in the affirmative, going ahead.

The current issues in the Middle East pose a major challenge to BRICS. One of the foremost tasks for BRICS in relation to the Middle East is the formulation of a policy position that is equitable and fair to all the parties to the conflict. The wellbeing of both the Palestinians and the Israelis needs to be staunchly championed.

Thus, BRICS is challenged to be even-handed in its managing of Middle Eastern questions. If the grouping does not do this, it risks turning the Gaza bloodletting, for example, into yet another proxy war front between the East and West.

Nothing constructive would be achieved by BRICS, in that the wellbeing of the peoples concerned would not be served and proxy wars have unerringly been destructive rather constructive in any way. The South could do without any more of these proxy wars and BRICS would need to prove its skeptics wrong on this score.

Accordingly, formations, such as BRICS, that are genuine counterweights to the West are most welcome but their presence in the world system should prove to be of a positive rather than of a negative nature. They need to keep the West in check in the UN system, for example, but they should steer clear of committing the West’s excesses and irregularities.

More specifically, the expanding BRICS should be in a position to curtail the proliferation of identity politics in the present world order. The West has, thus far, failed to achieve this. The seismic convulsions in the Gaza re-establish the pervasive and pernicious presence of identity politics in the world’s war zones, so much so, one could say that US political scientist Samuel Huntingdon is being proved absolutely right in his theorization that world politics over the past 30 years has been essentially a ‘Clash of Civilizations’.

After all, current developments in the Middle East could be construed by the more simple-minded observer as a pitting of Islam against Judaism, although there are many more convoluted strands to the Middle East conflict than a violent clash of these religious identities. More so why the influence of identity politics needs to blunted and eliminated by the right-thinking.

One way in which this could be achieved is the through the steady espousal and practise of former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami’s ‘Dialogue of Civilizations’ theory. While the existence of a ‘Clash of Civilizations’ cannot be denied on account of the pervasive presence of identity politics the world over, the negative effects of this brand of politics could be neutralized through the initiation and speeding-up of a robust dialogue among civilizations or identity groups.

Such an exchange of views or dialogue could prove instrumental in facilitating mutual understanding among cultural and civilizational groups. The consequence could be a reduction in tensions among mutually hostile social groups. Needless to say, the Middle East is rife with destructive politics of this kind.

Accordingly, there needs to be a paradigm shift in the way cultural groups interact with each other. The commonalities among these groups could be enhanced through a constant dialogue process and the Middle East of today opens out these possibilities.

Features

Their love story in song…

Published

15 hours ago

2023/11/30

Sahan Weerasooriya

The duo in the company of Dinesh Hemantha and Jananga

It’s certainly encouraging to see Sri Lankan artistes now trying to be creative…where songs are concerned.

Over the past few weeks, we have seen some interesting originals surfacing, with legendary singer/entertainer Sohan Weerasinghe’s ‘Sansare,’ taking the spotlight.

Rubeena Shabnam, Sri Lankan based in Qatar, and Yohan Dole, living in Australia, have teamed up to produce a song about their love life.

‘Adare Sulagin’ is the title of the song and it’s the couple’s very first duet.

Says Rubeena: “This song is all about our love story and is a symbol of our love. It feels like a dream singing with my fiancé.”

Elaborating further, especially as to how they fell in love, Rubeena went on to say that they met via social media, through a common friend of theirs.

The song and video was done in Sri Lanka.

Rubeena and Yohan with lyricist Jananga Vishawajith

“We both travelled to Sri Lanka, in August this year, where we recorded the song and did the video, as well.

‘Adare Sulagin’ was composed by Dinesh Hemantha (DH Wave Studio, in Galle), while the lyrics were penned by Jananga Vishwajith, and the video was handled by Pathmila Ravishan.

It is Dinesh Hemantha’s second composition for Rubeena – the first being ‘Surali.’

“It was an amazing project and it was done beautifully. Talking about the music video, we decided to keep it more simple, and natural, so we decided to capture it at the studio. It was a lot of fun working with them.”

: Rubeena Shabnam and Yohan Dole doing it with ‘Adare Sulagin

: Social media brought them together

‘Adare Sulagin,’ says Rubeena, is for social media only. “We have not given it for release to any radio or TV station in Sri Lanka.”

However, you could check it out on YouTube: Adare Sulagin – Rubeena Shabnam, ft. Yohan Dole.

Rubeena lives and works in Qatar and she has been in the music industry for almost five years. She has done a few originals but this one, with Yohan, is very special to her, she says.

Yohan Dole resides in Australia and is a guitarist and vocalist.

He has a band called Rhythmix, in Australia, where they play at various events.

He has been doing music for quite a while now but doing an original song was one of his dreams, he says

Rubeena and Yohan plan to get married, in December, and do more music together, in different genres.

Features

Mathematics examinations or mathematics curriculum?

Published

15 hours ago

2023/11/30

Sahan Weerasooriya

Some people say that it is not necessary for a Grade 10 student to buy an ordinary scientific calculator because they have smartphones with built-in calculators. If not, it is easy to install a calculator app on mobile phones. A smartphone should not be used as a calculator during a mathematics test or a mathematics exam because it can be used for cheating. In the UK and other developed countries students have to keep their smartphones in their school bags or in their lockers outside the classroom during mathematics tests and exams.

by Anton Peiris
anton25ps@gmail.com

R. N.A. De Silva has, in a recent article, provided some useful tips to students as regards preparation for mathematics examinations. Trained teachers and graduates with professional qualifications are familiar with this topic. All mathematics teachers have a duty to help the students with revision.

The more important task is to salvage the Sri Lankan O/Level mathematics students from the abyss that they have fallen into, viz. the implications and the retarding effect of the use of obsolete Log Tables. The Minister of Education, Senior Ministry Officials and the NIA are oblivious to the important and interesting things that have happened in Grades 10 and 11 mathematics in the UK, other parts of Europe, Japan, Canada, China and elsewhere. They have been like frogs in a well for almost half a century. Here are two important facts:

1. O/Level mathematics students in Sri Lanka are 46 years behind their counterparts in the UK and in other developed countries. Ordinary Scientific calculators were introduced to the O/Level mathematics classrooms in the UK way back in 1977. Prior to that those students used Slide Rules to facilitate their mathematical calculations. Ordinary scientific calculators give the values of Sine, Cos, Tan and their Inverses, Log, LN, exponential powers, square roots, squares, reciprocals, factorials, etc., at the press of a button, in addition to performing arithmetic functions. There is no memory to store mathematical formulae, etc. It is an invaluable tool for solving sophisticated and interesting mathematical problems and also problems in ordinary statistics. It has paved the way for achieving high standards in O/Level Mathematics in those countries.

Just compare the maths questions in the Cambridge IGCSE or the London O/Level Maths Exam with the questions in the Sri Lankan O/Level maths exam and you will see how far our students have fallen behind.

The Cambridge O/Level examination was replaced by the GCSE and the IGCSE (International General Certificate of Secondary Education) a few decades ago.

I am not referring to Programmable Calculators and Graphic Display Calculators (GDC), meaning devices with a small screen that can display graphs, perform statistical calculations like the Z- Score for large samples, show Matrix calculations, provide solutions to algebraic equations, etc., at the press of a few buttons. GDC is a compulsory item for A/Level mathematics students in the UK and in all developed countries.

Some teachers say that by using ordinary scientific calculators in Grades 10 and 11, students will not acquire the ability to carry out mental arithmetic calculations. This is not true because

(i). Calculators are introduced in Grade 10. Maths teachers have five years of Primary School and three years of Middle school (Grades 7, 8 and 9) i.e. a total of eight years to inculcate sufficient mental arithmetic skills in their students before the calculators are introduced in Grade 10!

(ii). In the IGCSE and in the London O/Level Mathematics Exams calculators are not allowed for Paper 1. Preparation for Paper 1 requires the acquisition of mental arithmetic skills, e.g., one lesson per week in class in Grades 10 and 11 in which calculators are not allowed. Sri Lanka could follow suit.

An ordinary scientific calculator costs less than 10 % of the price of a smartphone.

Sri Lankan students in International Schools sit the IGCSE or the London O/Level mathematics exams where ordinary scientific calculators are allowed. These students have made big strides in learning mathematics by using the calculators. Only the rich can send their children to International Schools in Sri Lanka. Millions of poor Sri Lankan students do not have calculators.

Our Minister of Education has announced that the government was planning to transform the country’s education system by introducing ‘’STEAM’ (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics). Maintaining high standards in O/Level Mathematics is the key to a successful implementation of STEAM programme. Unfortunately, the Education Minister and top education official are not aware of the fact that the only way to improve the standard of O/Level Mathematics is to do what the developed countries have done, i. e., revamping the O/Level mathematics syllabus and to introducing the ordinary scientific calculator in Grades 10 & 11. If they do it, it will be an important piece of curriculum development.

Bear in mind that the UK and other developed countries have taken another important step during the last 20 years; they have introduced the Graphic Display Calculator (GDC) to the O/Level Mathematics class and by providing a Core Exam and an Extended Exam. In the Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics Exams, Papers 1, 3, and 5 constitute the Core Exam. Papers 2 ,4 and 6 constitute the Extended Exam. Calculators are not allowed in Papers 1 and 2.

The Core Exam is a boon to students who have very little or no mathematical ability. More on this in my next article.

By using Log Tables, our Sri Lankan O/Level students have to spend a lot of time to solve an IGCSE (Extended Syllabus) exam problem or a London O/Level mathematics exam problem because the use of Log Tables takes a long time to work out the Squares, Square Roots, exponential powers, reciprocals , LN , factorials, etc., and that is tedious work while their counterparts in developed countries do that in a few seconds by pressing a couple of buttons in an ordinary scientific calculator.

The Calculator has given them more motivation to learn mathematics.

O/Level students in the UK have graduated from the ordinary scientific calculator to the Graphic Display Calculator (GDC) thereby improving their ability to solve more sophisticated, more important and more interesting problems in mathematics, statistics and physics. Sri Lankan O/Level students are compelled to use obsolete Log Tables.

Hats off to that Minister of Education who introduced the ordinary scientific calculator to the Sri Lankan A/ Level Mathematics classroom and to the A/Level Mathematics Exam a few years ago. That was a small step in the right direction. Minister Susil Premjayantha, please revamp the O/Level mathematics syllabus and introduce the ordinary scientific calculator to Grades 10 and 11 now. That will ensure a big boost for your STEAM programme and yield benefits for the Sri Lankan economy.

(To be continued. Topic 2: The necessity for introducing an O/Level Mathematics Core Exam and an Extended Exam. The writer has taught O/Level and A/Level Mathematics and Physics for 45 years in Asia, Africa and Europe and is an Emeritus Coordinator for International Baccalaureate, Geneva.)