What is it the consumer, public and each of you miss but not realize?

The offending mango cut up a week later to be eaten, see story on Feb 7th

It is always the TRUTH that is hidden from us. I will illustrate this based on the follow up of the earlier report below that I tagged a about a week ago. I was hit by a falling mango, which I noted, I would keep as a souvenir, to eat when ripe. Well here is the photo for all of you to enjoy. It was ripe exactly one week after it was plucked and I took the photo before I ate it a few minutes ago.

I can’t tell you how sweet it was literally. ’mee pani wage’(like bees honey). What I really want to share with you is this. I had the mangoes plucked when they were mature, and wait till they are ripe before I eat them. I sell them too to my customers, who complain they don’t look as good as the ones in the shop. I must say the mango that ripens on its own does not look as good on the exterior when compared with the ripe mango one is used to buying from the fruit seller. I can assure you it tastes a lot better.

Let me explain, the fruit seller buys the mango that has been plucked in an immature state by the grower or the plucker because it looks clean, and is then bought by the fruit seller, who then sprays it with a carbide that speeds the ripening process, so the buyer buys a nice light yellow hue and it looks nice and they pay over Rs100/- It tastes awful, as a mango plucked when not mature while looking nice on the outside, is sour, as it has not been allowed to mature and ripen on its own unaided.

My mango on the other hand looks average and this time also had a look of being blackened due to excess sun falling on the fruit. When it ripens there is hardly a yellowness to it, and consumers think it is not ripe, as they are used to the carbide yellow!
Even better, my price of Rs50/- is still not enticing enough to these consumers, the very same ones who pay a Rs100/- in the store. It is only when they eat it that the TRUTH be told. This is an example of the trouble I have to teach my well educated, degreed consumers, that even they have been taken for an almighty ride. No wonder we have a problem with the truth. The truth is that a naturally ripened mango does not have to be yellow to be ripe. If yellow it could be too ripe and spoilt.

So it is Valentines and I am spending the day quietly, home alone as they say. I had another run of trouble with my vehicle not starting, which resulted in a half day wasted as the vehicle reversed down a slope in an effort at reverse starting and broke the left side mirror! Once the battery was recharged and the alternator that was not charging repaired, the engine caught fire last evening while I was driving. I had a narrow shave as I was out in the wilds in the dark when it short-circuited and was able to limp back safely. This morning as the vehicle was just not pulling something that has been gradually getting worse, I had to be at a workshop while the fuel injectors were removed and cleaned, hoping that would help. It has a little, so I will probably be able to climb up the hill of one of my regular customers homes. It still is not up to the pulling power I would like, and the next stage will be to check over the injector pump to see if there is something that can be done to boost the power there. My whole enterprise depends on my being able to use my only vehicle everyday and I have to attend to all the repairs myself, as I don’t have a chauffeur to take the responsibility for its maintenance. It was a tough week.

Just Another day in Paradise – the effort to satisfy the ever-skeptical customer

As I sit at my desk this evening, in the dark save for two of Dr Godakumbura’s safety lamps, (those that don’t topple and cause a fire) writing this entry, I would like the reader to try andvisualize the trouble we go through to get good produce to our customers.

Sudath who is my man Friday in Raja Ela, Hingurakgoda and I went as I woke up this morning at dawn before even washing my face, to a neighbor across the river. We had to get his permission, before he left to tend to his fields, to pluck the balance of his Karthakolomban Mango. These were the Mangos the itinerant pluckers left behind as they were hard for them to reach. The owner of the trees, a small farmer who was short of cash was happy to accept some thousand rupee notes from a opportunist mango plucking team, even though the Mango was not mature. I had earlier reserved the tree for when the fruit was ‘pahila’ to pluck. The allure of money now was greater to him than later upon being mature, even though I had helped him in the past and also let him use some land this season free of charge to grow his green chillies.

The unsuspecting customer purchases the mango at an exorbitant price. They have been sprayed with carbide to ripen, and so he is disappointed with the taste, all because both the tree owner and the plucker want to make a quick buck. If they were on the tree till mature, (it is impossible to leave them till they ripen on the tree as the monkey, bat, and rock squirrel get there first) they would taste a whole lot better, and in these parts almost sickly sweet, something a Mango connoisseur would delight in. I forgot to mention, the unscrupulous middle-men pluckers, often also sell the fruit that falls, which spoil on ripening.

Sudath climbed the tree, some fifty ft in height. It is dangerous work having to stretch his arm with the plucking rod that has a pocket into which the mango falls, and is retrieved and fed into a sack that is carefully let down. I then take over and extract the fruit without damage. We then wash them thoroughly as the white milk if not washed, will result in the mango spoiling. When plucking some fruit fall to the ground damaged. One350g fruit fell about 40ft right onto my shoulder, which is sore as I write. I have the offending fruit as a souvenir and hope it ripens without spoiling (thanks to my shoulder) so I can eat it.

Just a moment after it hit me, a friend from back yonder, who lived on the same street in London’s Chelsea, around the time we both qualified as chartered accountants in the UK, called me saying he was at the CIC farm a couple of km away and would like to meet up. He and his wife, came here and saw what it was that made me give up all that and come here. There is something money just can’t buy, something magical, and we have it in abundance in this country. One just has to spend a little time searching for it.

All I could offer them today apart from mango was fresh juice from my orange trees, without sugar, and they were amazed at its taste, when compared with the orange imports that cost 5 times what I struggle to find a buyer for these. They are the traditional oranges growing wild for as long as people here can remember and are not the ‘Bibile Pani Dodang’ , which cost a lot more. The lack of sourness is due to the dry climate.

A drunken brawl on the farm gets out of hand, this is no ‘Dream’ It is ‘Reality’

I am a farmer and a 10acre landowner but I earn a living exclusively on what I grow, or buy from other growers, and then transport and sell on to the consumer. Of course I can’t do this on my own, and so I have people who live on my property to help me achieve my production volumes and for whom I pay a living wage. I also provide them housing, produce from my property and electricity free of charge. This imputed benefit if they had to get it on the open market would be Rs7000 a month. I nevertheless, still end up with a negative cash flow at the end of the month as you can see below on 31st January in the summary of my January accounts. I have to bridge this shortfall from assignments, working irregular hours and weekends. In short I work long hours, in multifaceted fields seven days a week to meet the payments including my staff, and in terms of spending money they indulge in the daily kasippu fix, while their families go hungry.

So when a member of my staff who was drunk and turned up around 8.30pm at my door sword in hand and wife in tow, seeking some sort of redress for an implied slight that another man who was at my home had done, I was angry enough to chase him out saying that I had just come home tired. I could not entertain his uncouth behavior. Of course he picked a fight with the other man and it spilt out to the outside. It should have ended there, a brawl between two moonshine (kasippu) inebriated men who would call each other names until both of them fell down and slept on the gravel in a drunken stupor.

The brawl did not end as it should have, as it normally does. An agent provocateur, who was with the sword man called out for imagined help on his mobile phone, and got in a crowd of thugs from two locations of more than 15 people, which included another farmhand who lives outside, the son-in-law of the sword man. They surrounded the farmhouse, and demanded that the person hiding in the house be brought out. It was past ten thirty, and I just switched the lights out and went to sleep, daring those troublemakers to try and make an entry in a good old fashioned western movie sense. All they were able to do was to break the padlock on the farm gate, which I had earlier closed and leave frustrated that they of 15 strength could not fight one person, who thought the better of confrontation in his inebriated state. This is a common problem in the country.

The next morning once daylight broke, we got the true story from the neighbors who heard the commotion, but were afraid to intervene at the time. The wives of these men appear to have egged them on rather than try to subdue their drunken bravado. The truth of their misdemeanors is also gradually emerging. These include plucking coconuts illegally, and selling them. Transporting wood from the property, along with other things such as firewood, and all the old iron to be sold. It has also later transpired that they have used tools from a local mechanic to remove and steal motors and equipment.

I have no option but to push them to leave voluntarily and force them out if they refuse. We have regularly helped them and there have been many occasions when we have saved them from problems of their own making. There comes a time when compassion has its limits and people need to know that they and their families’ fate lie in their hands and no one else. The moral of the story is to help those who help themselves only.

The Celebration of Independence – What does it truly mean? Who are the real heroes?

This blog is meant to record events of my life in my current situation of trying very hard to use my limited resources, to build an enterprise based on growing crops in rural village small-scale agriculture, and make my produce available at a reasonable price direct to the consumer, having personally transported some of my produce long distances at the dead of night to bring it fresh to the table.

It is a very independent way of life that is full of every hardship imaginable, but one is willing to undergo all this for that word independence. In the same vein the Nation celebrating Independence also must realize that with that word are a lot of sacrifices. In the present context, the final victory now in sight has been achieved by a heavy price paid by the soldiers and the majority of the citizens of the land who have had to indirectly sacrifice some of their basic rights, and privileges as well as desires for this victory.

Please let us not forget the true heroes of this victory. They are the men and women who work so hard in foreign lands, and send their hard earned money back home, whose remittances now amounting to about US$4Billion a year, that has enabled the war to be fought, the soldiers to be paid, the expensive hardware and ordnance to be purchased from overseas, and the bloated government kept in relative luxury, and foreign travel, when compared with the families of those who actually remit the money.

I want to make a very important point on the above statement. The US$90,000 remitted by 45 maids working in Dubai at an average of US$2,000 each per year, will buy a tax free latest model BMW for a Minister. At today’s exchange rate after transaction charges the Mid East worker’s family receives Rs 225,000 for the year. If the government had devalued the rupee by 20%, the least that is immediately required, this family would have received a further Rs50,000 or a little over Rs4,000 a month more. The Beemer would still cost the same in dollars. However if our cash rich Politicians want to buy dollars after devaluation, they will have to pay 20% more in rupees, so it is the maid in effect who subsidizes the overseas travel of the wealthy, and their foreign assets.

Over 75% of the citizens of Sri Lanka were born after Independence and therefore, British rule is just part of history. A history nevertheless that to this day has affected the “National Psyche” that has resulted in the 30 year ethnic terrorist conflict. We must try and take all steps necessary to erase this Psyche and replace it with a visionary Patriotism one based on a global perspective, where personal differences are truly immaterial in the pursuit of freedom from want, from hunger, from bondage, where we can all think freely, talk freely and act freely, within international codes of conduct, ethics, and morality without impinging on other people’s freedoms.

Lets celebrate this day, by first thanking our heroes who are at work in their country of employment while we have a Holiday, and request that our leaders recognize their contribution, and do what is necessary to make their lives more bearable in their places of employment, by providing better facilities at our Embassies to ensure that basic rights of our citizens working there are maintained. We can only then be truly independent.

The economic crisis and how it affects my enterprise

I am just trying to breathe after a staggering Rs21,000 cash flow only loss in this month January 2009. I must point out that this loss has not provided a salary for me or for that matter even lunch money, so I have to live on charity! I was hoping that my woes were over, but it seems that they are certainly not. I will show in detail all the items of my loss when I have analyzed all the components. It is something I don’t need to be ashamed off or proud of its just fact. As I am a UK qualified Chartered Accountant, I can have the auditable figures, out within a minute of the month ending, something not possible for any other enterprise on earth!! Or at least I like to think so. Show me I am wrong!

Of course if I include depreciation or amortization, the loss would be three times. I need a reserve of at least 75K a month just to be able to set aside funds to maintain the capital of the business at the current levels. So in reality my business is wasting away and not actually growing. That’s a horrifying thought as that was not my intention.

Apart from the normal problems I have encountered in production and the added problems this year of falling prices of King Coconuts, and Coconuts due to a glut in the market, I have to face a whole new problem partially caused by the economic crisis.

I have complained sometimes nauseatingly about the unreliability of my staff, who never turn up for work, with excessive absenteeism. Surprise! all decided to come to work this month with near perfect attendance and then claim the attendance bonus I used to offer. That was counterproductive as attendance fell, so I decided to abandon that incentive. I am now so grateful that it was removed as I realized that the perfect attendance was due to them not having any other source of income, with other providers of income being unable to give them the odd jobs they became used to. Those households are also suffering a cash flow problem themselves.

It sounds funny but it is no fun to me as it hurts my pocket more now, as there is no goal congruence between the workers and the employer. The workers want to maximize income, even if they don’t work, and I have to maximize profit. Actually if I cut 25,000 in wage payments, I could probably get into a break-even, meaning some are paid for no output! Making me sound like a big fool to employ the unemployable!

If you think I am just complaining, I have a worse report from a company I am advising: an Organic Farm, which employs 65 people. For the first time in 10 years under the current ownership, the farm has perfect attendance, and so all the workers draw the perfect attendance bonus of Rs2,000 each per month. This has resulted in the company having to pay out an additional 100K a month for wages. Tea their main product fell in output from 600kg in December to 200kg in January due to the drought conditions. So the loss ballooned due to lack of product and ballooning wage payments.

What both these examples show is that people take advantage of (I would go as far as to say exploit) the reliable employer in hard times and ignore and almost stick it to them in good times, by finding higher paid short term work and using their main job as insurance!

How about the results? yes for January 2009

Whole Enterprise A/cs Month January 2009 Loss of Rs21,204/-
Rental of Chicken Cage 20,000
Colombo Sales 65,700
Golf Club Sales 30,000
Godagama Shop Sales 113,227
Fresh Milk Sales 19,500
TOTAL REVENUE 248,427

Cost of sales- Col 16,970
Cost of King coconuts 5,000
Plucking King coconuts 6,810
Diesel Cost of Cab 13,340
Maintenance of Cab 5,530
Wages re Col sales 11,200
Polonna- running cost 15,000 (72,650)

Shop- retail item costs 41,186
Shop- Polon Rice cost 18,900
Shop- Coconut costs 5,540
Bread 8,576
Coconut Oil 2,600
Eggs 2,700
Sugar 6,500
Banana 3,165
Shop Electricity 750
Shop girl payroll 9,000 (98,917)

Wages re cattle care 20,000
Milk costs-Bran/Poonac 3,860
Milk sales bike repairs 1,540
Tractor diesel cut grass 1,800
Medicine for cows 940
Vet 600
Artificial insemination 600 (29,340)

Farm, elect, gas, phone 8,919
Farm consumables 10,575
Wages farm excl above 21,000
Payroll tax penalty 20,000
Local Property Taxes 8,230 (68724)

TOTAL EXPENSES 269,631
LOSS FOR MONTH (21,204)

A look back in history when Sri Lanka was known as the granary of the East

This blog is dedicated to understanding the present processes of agriculture in Sri Lanka, with a view to coming up with proposals to drastically improve on the miserably low productivity we are stuck in today. A brief look at history is also useful in making this case.

Amongst other activities I am a rice farmer in the Polonnaruwa district, and my paddy fields are fed with water from the Minneriya tank. This ancient tank also supplied water to paddy farmers a thousand years ago.

During the reign of King Parakrama Bahu the Great, when we were known as the granary of the east and when he sent a navy to conquer what is now known as Myanmar, people lived in a collection of villages, which were protected by forts and some by natural barriers of mountains and lakes. For obvious practical purposes the collection of homes were close to a water source.

The farmland that was fed by a sophisticated system of tanks and canals, was outside the village, and when dawn broke they went out to cultivate this land. Often the land was owned by the King and so it was a kind of tenanted land, where a rent in the form of money or service had to be paid. Substitute the word state for king, as that in effect was what the king provided in return. The security, and administration was carried out under his aegis.

This resulting arrangement meant that all farmland remained that way, and was not encroached on for home building or building one’s ranchettes, that many people in the Polonnaruwa now live in. The agricultural land was always kept that way and all effort was to use organic planting practices to maximize yield, as there were no pesticides and chemical fertilizers.

Admittedly, the number of people in this district were a fraction of today’s population, with a lot of land forested. The varieties of rice were indigenous, part of the over 500 varieties of rice prevailing in that age, so that regional grains were planted to suit the specific local conditions, which include weather pattern and soil conditions.

Instead of separating agricultural land from areas of habitation, recent practice in the last 80 years has been to give agricultural land to landless peasants from all over the country to live in, on the assumption that they as peasant farmers will have an increased income and quality of life. In practice what has then happened is that land has got divided amongst children and grandchildren. It is difficult to find any productive agricultural plots amongst the many homes and home gardens dotted all around. Very few of the owners of these ranchetts are farmers, and most of them are in service sectors such as retail, security, defense, healthcare, education, government and construction. Just on the street I live in given by DS Senanayaka for farming, there is not one full time farmer. I fear that the WHOLE COUNTRY is becoming one massive suburb with people living in ranchettes of up to three acres each and so agricultural land is disappearing.