Friday, April 25, 2008

Dream is far from Reality!!!!


This is a week where everything seems to have gone wrong, and 95% of the problems relate to the unreliability of the people who had tasks given them, which they have failed to complete and in some cases even start. The great excuse this time was that avurudhu season meant they could not do the work. Farming has no time void, work has to be done according to a different time table, which includes weather, water availability and machine worthiness of agricultural implements.

Agricultural labor sadly being the lowest educated and also notoriously ill disciplined, is part of the turf one deals with and so this is to be expected. I have earlier alluded to this also, where the best format to perform an agri business is fairly large where there are tiers of responsibility and accountability of a large scale unit with economies of scale, or a one man or family show where a peasant farmer just works his land and sells his produce. I am in a format that has no economic future in this current context primarily because I am not large enough to employ managers to run the organization. Spending all the time overseeing the work just to get them off their backs is counterproductive for me.

I am not the only one in this state. Many of the others have alternative income sources, and can subsidize loss making agricultural outfits, and those that I know who have larger tracts, and are making a reasonable return, say that it is the personnel issue that has prevented them from achieving a much better return. There is wholesale pilfering in this sector, as food items are easily marketable, as they cannot be distinguished from where they are sourced.

In my area the price of two coconuts is the price of the half bottle of moonshine (Rs100/-) which is readily available. I can round up in ten minutes 25 able bodied men who are now drunk at this hour of noon only with the promise of course of a free half. How can I feel sorry for these farmers? I have spent Rs 75,000/- buying paddy in the past four weeks to mill and sell in my shop and to my customers, in addition to my own paddy. Much of the money once the debts are paid, will end up in the belly of the my neighbors in the form of kassippu. Where is the sense in this? Today one of the wives squeezed another Rs 10/- a kg for her at the moment drunk husband’s paddy by shifting the date I ostensibly purchased it, just to feed her family. This cost me a paper loss today based on today’s price.
I noted in my journal yesterday that this is the most stressful job I have ever had to do as I have to juggle more crystal balls at the same time than a circus juggler, just to keep standing up. For example some of this morning’s issues.
1) The king coconut plucker has failed to come as promised, so alternative and more expensive means of plucking have to be organized, then the rains came and no one on the farm in Godagama worked from 9am though they get paid for the whole day as they turned up in the morning and no king coconuts got plucked creating a further headache to meet my commitments.
2) One staff member had a disagreement with another and I had to make various promises so she would come to work, as my revenue would suffer.
3) One farmer I made a forward purchase agreement with wants to change the terms of the agreement, to save him from dire straits and is looking to me to help him out, and of course relief is in the form of money!
4) Another farmer I made an agreement with paid the interest in Paddy, but wanted to extend the agreement so he can have a further season to pay back just when I was counting on the principal being paid today, so I can settle the wages.
5) The water from the Minneriya tank was given to our canal effective yesterday, but I have yet to see a drop into my property, so I have to set up investigation as to who is taking water without entitlement so I can get my requirements for ploughing.
6) My staff failed to dry all the paddy I had asked them to so I have to ensure it is dried and bagged for storing for later use inspecting the work.
7) My neighbor wants to borrow my weighing scale I just bought at great expense to weigh the paddy I buy and use etc. I have to decide if his friendship is worth the scale! Especially, as he is notorious for not returning.
8) One of my wholesale customers in Colombo just called asking me to get him a bag of rice. I don’t have the money to buy even knowing he will give me the cash on delivery, but I can’t tell him that, as he wont believe me.
9) We plucked the coconuts and are husking them, I have to decide which of the ones to take for sale, and leave the smaller ones to dry with husk so I can mill for coconut oil as it is more worthwhile doing that than sell small nuts.
10) I need to move the motor to end of the property to wet and plough knowing that the allocation will be insufficient. This is met with resistance on the basis that the existing tasks will not be done and moving the pipes is hard work. I am determined to move it but when I next come the ploughing will not have been done and the pump returned to normal duties.

Each day is different, it makes it interesting, but when one is juggling it is stressful in a robbing Peter to pay Paul scenario.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gambathe Ne
Voipniche on Phone

Anonymous said...

Looks like your staff has taken you fror granted. I think you have to show them better to show them there are other options. IT cconut plucker not come to work for one week what will happen

Anonymous said...

In the 1970s and early 80s, I lived in my "village" a few miles north of Negombo. Distilling and selling moonshine was the main occupation of the area at that time. All around my property were small-scale distillers. The moonshine was transported by train and road to Colombo and its suburbs. Every evening, drunks would ramble down the village road, singing loudly or getting into arguments with their neighbors. The police didn't intervene because they were bribed.

In the 1980s, villagers began to leave for Italy, first singly and then along with their families. The village turned prosperous, and the elderly villagers left behind, formerly moonshine distillers and drinkers, now turned to whiskey. No drunks, no crime, no theft of coconuts.

I am sorry to see that the scourge of monnshine is prevalent in rural, Buddhist areas like Minneriya. Could the local temple act as a deterrant?

Anonymous said...

Have you ever thought about including a little bit more than just your articles?

I mean, what you say is valuable and everything.
Nevertheless think about if you added some great images or videos
to give your posts more, "pop"! Your content is excellent but with
images and video clips, this blog could definitely be
one of the most beneficial in its field.
Terrific blog!
Review my site : GFI Norte

Unknown said...

Son nouvel album intitulé Servir le beau est sortie en commerce le lundi 3 http://www.consulatalgerielille.org/nike/ novembre 2008. Il est composé de 11 titres aux influences musicales riches et variées (pop, rock, tango, balade.). Avec Patrick Hampartzoumian air max one pas cher (Les restos du coeur, Patrick Fiori, etc.), Nathalie Cardone revient donc 8 ans après. "On se retrouve 3 mois et demi après le 19 novembre (date du barrage retour remporté face à l'Ukraine, ndlr) nike free run avec tout ce qui s'est passé en terme de jeu et d'émotion. Je ne peux pas recréer le même contexte mais il faudra maintenir l'état d'esprit et la motivation. Mais ce ne sera pas un match sanction mercredi, ça donnera des infos supplémentaires.

En Israël même, la pérennité air max pas cher du blocus fait débat. "Nous devrons trouver une solution pour lever le blocus, et nous avons des discussions avec des pays amis nike tn pas cher susceptibles de proposer des solutions créatives permettant d'améliorer la situation à Gaza",nike free run pas cher plaide le ministre travailliste des Affaires sociales, Yitzhak Herzog. "Nous ne sommes pas insensibles aux critiques internationales, mais la question est de savoir air max one comment assurer notre sécurité". Coucou Bree . Moi aussi je dois avouer que j'ai été bien nike soldes estomaquée de voir le Léonardo aussi gros et bouffi, même au visage il est méconnaissable; moi aussi j'adore ce mystère autour de Nessie et je ne crois toujours pas air max 90 que les photos ont un rapport avec le Monstre du Loch Ness oki passe quand tu veux pour lire les infos. LOL j'ai réalisé hier seulement que c'est vraiment la rentrée la semaine prochaine, finies les accalmies de circulation ou les ronds nike pas cher points abordables..

Un rapport de l'Inspection des finances a montré que les logements de fonction (200 000 environ) au titre de la nécessité de service représentaient en Ile de France un avantage moyen chaussure nike pas cher variant entre 7 850 euros (dans l'Oise) et 19 850 euros à Paris en 2004, bénéfice qui échappe largement à la taxation fiscale et air max femme sociale. Même constatation concernant les voitures de fonction (150 000 environ) dont le coût est de l'ordre du demi milliard d'euros et dont les trois quarts servent aussi à des déplacements privés. La plupart des ministères ne déclarent pas ces avantages en nature.

Unknown said...

Sourcemy company Check This Outfind out click siteYour Domain Name

sateaur said...

reference find out Full Report visit site Recommended Site why not check here