Over Rs. 20 Bn spent annually for dry, red chilli imports -SPMASL
Sri Lanka annually spends around Rs. 20 billion to import dry/red chillies and this is a very sad situation, said Chairman of the Seed and Planting Material Association Sri Lanka (SPMASL) Aruna Weerakoon.
At a special press conference last week he also disclosed that Sri Lanka is the second highest green chilli consuming nation in the world after Mexico. “Hence farmers find it more economical to sell green chillies rather than converting them to red chillies.”
Asked why some of the large companies are not engaged in the dry, red chillies business he said they are now getting involved. He said that there is an urgent need to boost agricultural productivity and national food production for ensuring long-term food security in the nation.
“It is a well-known fact that a significant percentage of the population in the country is still incapable of meeting the required level of nutritious food to maintain their good health. Seed is a vital input used in agricultural production and the increased usage of high-quality seed of superior crop varieties can be considered as the most effective and pragmatic way of enhancing crop productivity.”
This phenomenon is successfully practiced in many countries in the world. This vital input most often costs less than 10% of the total production cost and determines the efficient use of costly inputs like fertilizer.
Seed supply, which includes both local production and imports, had been a government domain until the 1980s and due to heavy financial losses and supply disruptions the government decided to liberalize seed imports in 1984 and today it is controlled by the private sector very successfully.
“There are also exports of local seeds to countries like Japan and supplies more than 75% of seed paddy and more than 80% of vegetable seed. They also account for almost 100% supply of maize seed and over 50 % of potato seed.”
Despite this still a significant number of farmers in Sri Lanka use seed from informal sources of questionable quality. This situation adversely affects national food production. Vice Chairman, Waruna Madawana Arachchi said that Sri Lankan companies due to its advanced R&D have increased yields and now are on par with other countries.
“For example, tomatoes which yielded 8,000 KG per acre 10 years ago today yield 20,000 while Green Chillies yield has increased from 4,000 to 15, 000. He said that to continue this healthy trend they seek the government not to have ad-hoc regulations to prevent seed supply distortions and protect both consumers (farmers) and genuine suppliers/producers.
“Programs to enhance farmer income by improving their productivity with the use of correct technologies including the increased use of quality seed should also be encouraged.”