RESURRECTING PLANTATIONS INDUSTRY – 2019

Both our good neighbours China and India are trying to achieve 50 Trillion USD economy (GDP) by 2050. Both these economies have heavily invested in improving IT/ICT and in R & D. Sri Lanka must increase provisions for R & D at least 1% of GDP PPP. Almost 4.1% of the population of Sri Lanka lives below the national poverty line in 2016.

The World Bank has ranked Sri Lanka among the slowest growing economies in Asia; which is currently the fastest growing economic region in the world. In 2017, plant-based products (including tea) and rubber-based products, made over 26% of Sri Lanka’s export portfolio. Therefore, we can easily conclude that improvements in the plantations sector can dramatically contribute to Sri Lanka’s economic growth. The Ceylon Planters Society bears both the opportunity and responsibility to spearhead this mission.

As we embark on this epic journey of innovation and enhancement of our current agricultural practices, to create large scale economic development, we’d be remiss not to look at both our competitors’ efforts and other industries that have completely reshaped their way of business. As Otto von Bismarck puts it “Only a fool learns from his own mistakes. A wise man learns from the mistakes of others.”

On the other hand, the knowledge explosion is expected to happen in 2020. The real time information is becoming a reality with the boom of 5G technology that’s happening very fast across the world. Tesla’s unmanned vehicles have already become a reality. Drones and artificial intelligence combined are into vertical farming. The seven billion population in the world are becoming a global market. Everyone will have access to all the markets and the cost of living is bound to come down. The high cost and lower quality producers will cease to operate within a short period of time.  These are what bound to happen in the intelligent economy.

For an example doubling of knowledge took 100 years to happen in early 1900 and the same is going to take only 12 hours to happen in 2020. Can you happen what will happen to our education system? Online education and global standards of education will be a reality.

With only one artificial lake in Israel they export food to many parts of the world whereas we import most food from many countries with 30,000 natural lakes within the country. For that the climate smart agriculture has been in existence for the past 10 years or so, although we are not even ready to understand this powerful concept.

LESSONS TO LEARN FROM OTHER INDUSTRIES

Uber is a great example of a company that eliminated the need for taxi companies as a middleman. By directly connecting passengers with drivers, Ubers are both a cheaper and a more efficient mode of travel.

Their success lies, in fundamentally revamping the business process of ordering a taxi. While the app is cool, the real magic is in the outside the box thinking. What process within the plantation sector can be completely redesigned? What solutions will connect companies with a diverse range of customers, at a lower cost, delivering a better product anywhere in the world?

The 'enhanced autopilot' feature of Teslas’s helps the vehicle to stay in lane, warns about potential collisions, and can even automatically apply the brake in the case of an emergency -- even to the extent that if there's an accident, it'll take the appropriate action.

We are left with a small window of time to catch up at least with our neighbours when compared our condition with the infinite possibilities under explosion of knowledge. As Planters our biggest resource is the land and climate/ environment. We need a new business model. CPS has been speaking about these urgent needs for quite a sometime.

We have defined a Planters profession. That’s the first time in the history of 150 years. The available knowledge within the industry is insufficient to understand the value of it. We requested N I P M to take it forward, but nothing happened. In fact, the N I P M is in a selfish journey of becoming a white elephant to the Ministry of Plantations Industries. Instead of becoming an institute to improve professional competencies and engaged in research, the institute is vying to become a university, despite the available universities. We cannot see any feasibility in this other than creating a conflict

Planters in the field is a thankless job. Our job requires more skills than any other job. We engage in our duties 24X7. The plantations are in this state not because of our choice but because of the weak leadership. Sri Lanka Plantation products manufactured under most modern technologies catering to global markets will emerge soon. There are many land-based investments that are practiced all over the world. Since our leaders are not capable of making the most needed ‘change’ happen, lets pray and hope for that day to be dawn faster. Such a business climate will enable the employees to earn 10,000 USD per capita income per annum. Such a system itself will eject in-efficiency. Our dream of 10 B USD revenue from the Plantations industry should not be a dream any longer.

POINTS TO PONDER.

The need for us to re-examine our way of business is vital. Without doing so, Sri Lanka’s plantation sector, an already dwindling industry, could slide into leaving long lasting negative economic implications for the nation. New Business Model is one of the answers. For this we can start with 500,000/- profit per hectare per annum goal. Industry wide, broad scale change is required. We need to undertake a deep and meaningful study into understanding the challenges we now face and will face in times to come. In order to understand and to initiate meaningful action the industry needs competent decision makers at the top. Vital few national level policies are musts from the side of the government. It’s important to recognize, that while industry-wide change is necessary, that the steps to change can come from humble beginnings.

A simple solution that automates or revamps a business process that you apply with on a daily basis, could result in a huge number of man hours saved industry wide. A single idea, that exposes Sri Lanka’s plantation export products to new markets, could generate the country billions of dollars like Alibaba of Jakma’s. What’s important is to always recognize that there is always room for improvement and be diligent in everything we do.

Lalin I De Silva, former Senior Planter, Agricultural Advisor / Consultant, freelance journalist

By. Lalin I De Silva