The Hindu : Get farmers out of subsistence farming, says Ranil

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Sunday, Aug 24, 2003

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Get farmers out of subsistence farming, says Ranil

By Our Special Correspondent

— Photo: Vino John

The Sri Lankan Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, presenting a fellowship of the Virtual Academy for Food Security and Rural Prosperity to K. David, at the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation in Chennai on Saturday. The Chairman of the MSSRF, M.S. Swaminathan, looks on.

CHENNAI AUG. 23. The Sri Lankan Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, today said the challenge for South Asia lay in making the best use of its scarce land and water resources, to bring the farmers "out of the cycle of subsistence farming". Solving this issue would help the farmers meet the immense demand for food and clothing of the West.

Inaugurating a "Virtual Academy for Food Security and Rural Prosperity" (VARP) launched by the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation in Chennai, Mr. Wickremesinghe said that over the ages, food and clothing had always been traded. World trade was built around these two economic elements. While countries in the region had become self sufficient in food, they had to see the immense market before them for supply of food to regions which were becoming more and more prosperous, especially in Europe, East Asia and the West.

The Prime Minister said soon after he took over, he had asked the Indian Government for the services of the agriculture scientist, M.S. Swaminathan, to advise his nation on modernising its farming practices. A high-level delegation from his country would soon work out the details of such assistance needed.

Giving details of the programmes he had taken up for rural and farm development in Sri Lanka, Mr. Wickremesinghe wanted the Foundation's help in improving the supply chain (of farm products) in Sri Lanka.

The Prime Minister enrolled the first six "fellows of VARP", which will be a virtual network to provide value-added information to rural communities and help the latter with agriculture, fishing, village development. The network would use the entire range of technologies including television, computers, Internet and radio, to access data and provide demand-driven, location-specific, user-controlled and user-managed information.

`Innovative model'

Mr. Wickremesinghe, who lauded the model as "innovative", expressed his desire for replicating the experiment in his country.

Prof. Swaminathan said the VARP concept came from the Foundation's experience. "We felt the need to add value to the time and labour through knowledge of know-how and do-how to the rural communities". Only then could the economic, social, gender and digital divides be bridged. The plan used Mahatma Gandhi's concept of "Antyodya" (starting from the poorest of the poor) and Sarvodaya (a society without losers and everyone got into a win-win situation). The VARP's activities would focus on weather, water, energy, agriculture, health, biodiversity and eco-system management.

Introducing the "academicians" from the rural communities, the Chairman of the Madras Institute of Development Studies, M. Anandakrishnan, said these persons constituted the corps of community workers who had an essential attachment to rural prosperity and the cognitive ability to understand the development of rural communities.

These six persons were associated with the work of MSSRF's Knowledge Centres. They not only adopted, but also configured the technologies for their local use; they identified the information and data requirements of local people; ensured people's participation in development and made the models sustainable through community participation.

The recognition given to this small group, he hoped, would eventually grow into a critical mass that would have a multiplier effect.

The newly-inducted were E.Ambiga (working among rural women to organise self-help groups), H. Bagadoor (worked significantly to gather and provide vegetable market prices in villages), K. David (actively involved in social and economic development of physically challenged persons), B. Kasthuri (who organised micro credit among women, N. Sridevi (an innovative teacher specialising in adult and computer literacy) and D. Usharani (an active health campaigner among rural women).

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