Conspiracy against Development in Sri Lanka.
Posted on May 11th, 2012
By Garvin KarunaratneƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Ph.D,(Michigan State University) Former Govt. Agent, Matara District
Our Newspapers were full of pictures depicting milk producers in Hatton pouring milk onto the roads in protest at the companies refusing to purchase their milk. It was reported that the private companies had stopped purchasing the milk leaving the producers helpless.
This has taken a different turn now with Minister Nimal Piyatissa, the Central Province Minister for Agriculture statingƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ that the private companies were a part of a conspiracy to discourage local production-they ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-stopped the normal purchases to crate a panic situationƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚( ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…- Hatton Milk Shower- A ConspirancyƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚: The Island 8/5/2012)
Conspiracies against development in Sri Lanka is nothing new.
In Milk production, I quote from my book, How the IMF Ruined the Third World..: Godages, 2006:
ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-It is interesting to note that the multinationals involved in supplies have even gone to the extent of sabotaging local production., Recently(written in 1999) the managing director of Kiriya, a company that is trying to make Sri Lanka self sufficient in milk production had saidƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ that he suspects a foreign hand in sabotaging his attempts to develop the local production.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Multinationals have wormed their way into the production and the processing of the local dairy industry to such an extent that it is impossible to expectƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ any development purely because such development of the local industryƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ will cause a loss in sales to the multinational. They will not shoot themselves in the foot. It is Sri lanka that has shot itself in the footƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ by handing over such prime areas of activity to multinationals.ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚
This managing director of Kiriya was an Indian expert specially employed by Sri lanka to develop milk production.
Milk production is an area where we can actually build up production and as the Minister Nimal Piyatissa has said the spilling of milk can be some underhand activity aimed at sabotaging our development.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ In fact I had said thatƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-the Central Province aloneƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ can produce over Rs. 1,000 million worth of milk productsƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢. In fact, having worked in Kandy, Nuwara Eliya, Kegalla and Ratnapura districts I would venture to state that if we really concentrate in these Districts where there is rainfall for around eleven months of the year we can easily be self sufficient in milk production. Milk production and livestock is the key area where the Youth Self Employment Programme of Bangladesh was successful. This Programme was designed and implemented by me and over the period 1982 to today as much as two million youths have become entrepreneurs and this was mainly in livestock.
It is my experience that there has to be short term(a three month)training courses for youths and people in these Districts in livestock development).ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ This was the method used in the Youth Self Employment Programme in Bangladesh.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The trainees established units in their homes to be managed by their brothers and sisters and thereby the programme got off the ground quickly. The training institutes were also charged with an extension service when the trainees commenced farms.
Once when I was the Government Agent at Matara,ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ I called for approval to develop milk production in Deniyaya on a plan where we would have a Cheese and Butter Making Creamery. The area is rainy and already people have experience in milk production. I had a plan to develop milk production. However this was turned down on the grounds that small scale cheese and butter factories were uneconomical. It was a decade later that I came across a Butter and Cheese making small scale factory at Comilla Bangladesh and also many such small scale factories in Switzerland all fully commercially viable.
May I suggest to the Provincial Minister for the Central Province to commence short term training courses in livestock production immediately if dairy production is to be stepped up.
Further instead of depending on multinationals and private companies to purchase milk, it may be worthwhile to establish cooperative creameries that will collect milk from producers and initially establish cooling plants and send the supplies to MilcoƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ and later establishƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ milk drying facilities and butter and cheese making. We already have the SwissƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Cheese Company in the Central Province that was established by an officer who once worked in the Milk Board. It is a thriving industry and we can hope to have Factories of this type in Deniyaya, Sabaragamuwa andƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ the Central Province.
Recently I read an interesting article by Dr U. Petiyagoda, in The Island of 20/6/2011, which is important to consider:
ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-A basic problem is thatƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ nature determines that for every heifer bornƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ there is a bull calf based on chromosomal gender determination.
During the past decade workers in the US and Australia have developed a process based on the technique of Flow Cytometry which uses a method employing fluorescent dyes and lacers that allows for a spectacular separation. At the moment the technologies are patent protected.
A practical approach may be to finance a few suitably qualified veterianarians to do a detailed study followed by trainingƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ at the relevant institutions and introduction of the equipment and methodology requiredƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ I hope the Minister for the Central Province will take this matter up with the University dons at Peradeniya because this is an important area for dairy development in Sri Lanka, being a Buddhist country, and milk producers do not know what to do with bull calves.
The Third World development is held up due to conspiracies hatched by multinationals and many others.
Take paper production, Sri Lanka had the Valachienai factory, which produced quality paper. It used straw as the base and the Factory purchased straw from as far as Hingurakgoda.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ I am aware of the process because the Valachena Factory Circuit Bungalow was my resting place on my fleeting circuits to the Eastern Province when I got the opportunity to goƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ through the process of manufacture. Later we had the Embilipitiya factory which too produced good quality paper.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ An import levy of 10% was charged on all imports and giving into the Multinational Paper Lobby we allowed free imports. EmbilipitiyaƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ could not face the competition and the Factory was closed.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Teething industries have to be helped and this has been the experience of every country in the initial stages.
Speaking of conspiracies, today the entire Third World is caught up by the conspiracy staged by the IMF and the World Bank, under the Structural Adjustment Programme which they forced on the Third World countries from the Seventies.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ All Third World countries were carefully managing their economies and did not fall into debt. When the price of oil doubled in the Early Seventies the IMF and the World Bank got the chance to make the Third World countries to accept loans on condition that they followed free market economics- allow imports, allow the free use of foreign exchange even if the country does not have foreign exchange. The countries were urged to sell State concerns and find foreign exchange for this luxury spending and loans were freely given. The aim was to make the countries indebted so that they had to listen to the IMF. This happened to many of the Third World countries.
In 1977, SriƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Lanka embraced the IMF and took loans freely,ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ that by 1995 we were indebted to such an extent that unless we get further loans we cannot service the debts. Even today the country is ruined because of this and there seems to be no way ahead other than following the IMF. This is the biggest conspiracy against Third World development. This conspiracy is documented in my Books:How the IMF Ruined Sri Lanka(Godages: 2006) and Success in Development(Godages) 2010
Many do not believe that the IMF and the World Bank and even countries like the USA have conspired to sabotage Third World development. To them the answer has comeƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ in writing. In Confessions of an Economic Hitman, ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ John Perkins confesses how when he worked for a multinational he fabricated reports and drafted plans for Aid, where the Aid funds went back to the donor country and the plans were white elephants whichƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ended up with the host Third World country being indebted to the extent of the loan. He worked in Ecuador and recently the President had refused to pay up such debts.
While we try to develop Sri Lanka, the earth is being dragged beneath our feet. The Human Rights Lobby Acts against Sri Lanka today are also a part of the conspiracy against our development!
Garvin Karunaratne, Ph.D,(Michigan State University)
Former Govt. Agent, Matara District
11 th May 2012
May 12th, 2012 at 3:44 am
I don’t believe the Indians are doing any good than the Americans or the IMF. They have their own interests. They would not develop the local milk and dairy industries for good reasons.
The heifer and bull calf issue is key to resolving the milk production impasse. However, bringing the US patented process is going to be very expensive. They will not give it away without a recurring royalty which will be prohibitively expensive.
In some world giants in milk production, they cull most bull calves (at times close to a million a year in a country) within days of birth to increase milk available for commercial harvest. This can dramatically reduce the production cost and make local producers competitive.
Also old cows can provide a huge cash flow benefit to farmers at the end of their commercial useful life. For a large number of farmers this is a matter of continuation and discontinuation.
However, social issues prevent these steps. It is all about choices. A sustainably competitive milk industry can be easily achieved by following these simple steps before any high investment requiring processes are looked at.
May 12th, 2012 at 5:39 am
Dr. Garvin,
At the time you were in administrative service in Sri Lanka the situation was different. We had surplus of labour and unemployment was the problem. It is not so now. There is a labour shortage due to birth control and abortions by mainly Sinhala community. You can imagine the situation when you read news today that in one BOI steel factory at Mirigama area owned by Indians, out of 300 workers 200 are Indians from Rajastan. In fact if the present trend continues you can predict exactly when Sinhalese will be a minority in SL.
You may have done better in Bangladesh. But Bangladesh, Pakistan and India are baby factories. You can see the the situation when you look at the scenes in BBC programmes. Their streets are full of children. So are our up country line rooms. In one room the BBC was showing recently I counted six small children in one family. When they grow up they will not want to work in tea estates. If you ask them they will say they want to be doctors and engineers. They know their rights in our country. The driver who took me in the cab from Colombo to airport last month was an upcountry tamil he was driving very aggressively. He was exercising his rights on the road. I had no problem with that. So you see we have a labour problem now. I have a feeling that the problem in milk production is cost of labour
May 12th, 2012 at 6:46 am
When N M Perera was questioned by a journalist who asked him ” Sir, You as a graduate of the LSE what do you think is the problem of the world economy He said LSE” He was quite right . What these international schools of economics have achieved is the slavery of the mind. What our public servants and politicians carry out is the set plan of the western economic thought which is geared to exploitation of the poor countries. Unless our mind is free our countries will never get rid of the shackels.
May 12th, 2012 at 10:40 am
Apart from Cow Milk, which is proving to be expensive, there are bean & nut milks which are far cheaper and cruelty free.
Soy milk is excellent and when produced properly tastes just like cow milk. There are now household machines to extract soy milk. Soy milk products, cheeses, yoghurt, etc. have good taste and nutrition. The nut milks are also popular in the west. The Far East has used soy for centuries.