Commercial Crops in South Asia

Transcription

1 Commercial Crops in South Asia Lecture 5 Tea, Rubber & Coconut in Sri Lanka Ambrish Dhaka MA Course, 2017 Economic and Political Geography of South Asia IS 529 N

2 Agriculture Production Sri Lanka

3 Sri Lankan Agriculture Rubber 2% Tea 11% Firewood and forestry 6% Livestock 8% Coconut 12% Other Agricultural Products 3% Plantation 2% Betel & Arecanuts 1% Exports Tobacco 0% Minor Export Crops 4% Other 16.24% Paddy 15% Other Food Crops 35% Coconut 4.24% Rubber 7.65% Productions Tea 71.88%

4 Agriculture in Sri Lanka. Agriculture contributed $5.3 bln USD word of GDP (MP) in It provides livelihood to 30 percent of labur force, and contributes to 12 percent of GDP. It recorded 3.2% growth rate in the same year. Rice (paddy) and tea are the mainstay of Sri Lankan agriculture. Other crops like onions and maize also have increased their share. Sri Lanka is the leading producer of Cinnamon (3), Tea (4), Cloves (4), Arecanuts (6), Pepper (7), Nutmeg, cardamoms (9), Buffalo (9), Natural rubber (9), ginger (12). Sri Lanka launched "Api Wawamu Rata Nagamu" national food production program that comprised of extending concessional finance, small tool distribution, support price mechanism esp. for paddy and milk. This helped bringing 75,000 acres of abandoned land under cultivation and 300,000 home gardens being developed. Contd...

5 Agriculture in Sri Lanka The Paddy Marketing Board is entrusted for maintaining food price stability. in 2009, govt launched NCRCS (New Comprehensive Rural Credit Scheme) for reviving paddy cultivation. Agriculture and rural development constitute the second biggest state expenditure component after road&bridges in SL govt budget. Sri Lanka being a small country uses trans-basin river water transfer for enhancing the agriculture capabilities. In bln rupees was spent on irrigation projects out of which 14 bln was capital expenditure. SL has also got 13 bln rupees as foreign aid between for irrigation projects. Moragahakanda, Kaluganga, Menikganga, Deduru Oya and Rambukkan Oya reservoirs are some of the important ones. Iran govt provided $529 mln USD for Uma Oya project. Kuwait provided $37 mln USD for Kaluganga development project. Sustainable Water Assistance Management Project is being implemented with the assistance of Australian government. Contd...

6 Agriculture in Sri Lanka International Food AId is of particular significance to the conflict burnt regions of Sri Lanka. The SL government and WFP singed MoU under which a food assistance of $135 mln USD was approved for the districts of Ampara Batticaloa, Trincomalee, Mannar, Vavunia, Mulaitive, Killinochi and Jaffna. The primary activities are as follows: > Food distribution for people displaced or recently affected by the conflict > Mother child health and nutrition > Food for education for all primary students in selected schools > Food for work and food for training > Strengthening the capacity of the government counterpart to manage food assistance programme Japan is the largest bilateral donor accounting 20 percent of the aid flow.

7 Between the period 2006 to 2011, the share of tea, rubber and coconut in agriculture production stood together at 23 percent in 2006, which declined to 20 percent in Therefore, the increase in

8 REGIONAL CONTRIBUTION TO PRODUCTION AND EXPORTS

9 Tea Cultivation in Sri Lanka Tea production in 2010 registered the highest annual production recorded at 329 million Kgs. The national average yield per ha was 1484 kgs. Favourable climate and high prices are the two vital factors for rise in production. SL Govt also incentivised production by providing fertilizer support to smallholders of tea estate. The snallholders contribute nearly 74 percent of the tea production in SL. The low lying areas are being encouraged for production. The Colombo Tea Auction (CTA) is entrusted to fetch best price for tea. And, SL tea is getting recognised internationally.

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11 Source: Tea Research Institute of Sri Lanka

12 Land Holdings - Tea

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14 Economic Issues & Policies Source: The Sri Lanka Tea Industry: Economic Issues and Government Policies Gaminda Ganewatta and G. W. Edwards

15 Economic Issues & Policies 2.3 Role in the Economy Tea utilizes large quantity of resources and provides relatively high return to the country. Tea uses larger area of wet zone arable land available for the agriculture. Sri Lanka produced 280 kg million of black tea in 1998, about 10 percent of total world black tea production. Sri Lanka exports more than 90 percent of its production annually. Foreign export earnings amount Rs 42.5 billion or about 15 percent of total export earnings that comprised 58 percent of agricultural export (Central Bank of Sri Lanka, 1998).

16 Land & Labour in Tea Land Productivity Poor land productivity of Sri Lanka tea is attributed to both old vegetative stock and low agricultural standards. Low grown area experiences longer sunshine hours that enhance the growth of tea flush and thus produce high yields eventually compare to the mid and high grown areas. Low country has higher percentage of VP tea that gives higher yield compare to low VP percentage in mid and high grown area. Up and mid elevation has relatively old tea lands having low yield potential. Mid country where tea planting was commenced about hundred years ago has very old seedling tea on degraded soil. High vacancy rate is another contributory factor for low productivity in mid country tea lands. Therefore land productivity is very low in mid country tea lands. Labour Productivity Labour constitutes about 65% of the cost of production in the tree crops industries and thus labour productivity has greater impact on the profitability. Low labour productivity of Sri Lanka tea estate is related to less land productivity and inefficient labour use. As plucking absorbs highest number of labour days, labour productivity is the deciding factor of profitability. The plucker intake at the estate sector is less than the small holder sector. This is because the plucking norms were set too low with no relation to varying productivity of different estate. However, as fine plucking is necessary for good quality final product, selective hand plucking has been continuing for long time without any technological advancement to improve labour productivity.

17 Exports of Lankan Tea Sri Lanka Tea Sri Lanka Tea Exports (tonnes) Destination (Value) Viet Nam Australia Singapore Kazakhstan Israel Malaysia Albania UK Kuwait Pakistan Italy Kyrgyzstan Finland India Poland Egypt USA Saudi Arabia South Africa Other Asia, nes China Ukraine Germany Chile China Syria Japan Iraq UAE Azerbaijan Turkey Russia Iran 0

18 Rubber Cultivation in Sri Lanka Rubber production in 2010 reached 153 million kgs. Despite torrential rainfall the high prices of rubber allowed increase in production volumes. The smallholders account for 54 percent of total land area under rubber production. The average yield was 1607 kgs per hectare. Sri Lankan rubber support domestic manufacturing, but the rise in international prices have put more pressure to export.

19 Rubber Cultivation in Sri Lanka

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29 Rubber Cultivation in Sri Lanka

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31 Rubber Exports- Destination

32 Coconut Plantation in Sri Lanka Coconut production was on decline in 2010 by 19 percent. This has largely attiributed to low rainfall in The smallholder constitute 80 percent of the total production area. There has been decrease in the fertilizer use. Puttalam, Gampaha and Kurunegala is know as the coconut triangle. Coconut production fluctuation sharply affected the input cost for industries and its price is controlled through tariff barriers.

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