Keep Worshiping False Idels or Is Sri Lanka Ready to Climb a Steep Hill Towards a Progressive Agrarian Reform?

Growing food for export to take advantage of rising prices is the typical advice given to hungry Africa by the corporate world and their allies, IMF, World Bank and western governments, including the so-called philanthropy houses. The Gates Foundation, together with Rockefeller Foundation launched the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) in 2006, whose avowed aim is to eradicate hunger in Africa ‘through promotion of rapid, sustainable agricultural growth based on smallholder farmers’. But the reality was far removed from that. The program is not based on smallholder farmers at all; rather, it rides on their backs to make profits for agribusiness and promote genetically modified organisms (GMOs), which are strongly advocated by the US through USAID. AGRA promotes the industrial agriculture model, based on intensive technology, use of chemical fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides and high-breed seeds, which had ruinous effects on the environment and smallholders while benefiting big farmers.

Looking at Sri Lanka, and how we have embraced the Green Revolution and “Agriculture Modernization” initiatives by successive governments with the support of the so-called international culprits above; how the voracious appetite of globalized, neoliberal capitalist accumulation is being consuming the small producers of the periphery, the Sri Lankan Peasantry. The new phase of capitalist accumulation, based on the old form of accumulation, we could call it primitive accumulation or accumulation by dispossession – is rooted in the destruction of people and their livelihoods and the pillaging of resources: land, forests, minerals, water, bio-resources. When the function of the State is to be the handmaiden to Capital: to commodify, natural resources including land and water for profit; to convert food-producers into cash-crop producers either directly or as contract-farmers for agribusiness; and to “free” state lands for corporates who are assumed to be more efficient in production through the application of capital and technology and more capable of accessing markets abroad where income will be in foreign currency. One could ask that will Sri Lanka’s fate be same as our fellow Africans, and if the slippery slope of ‘Agriculture Modernization” taught us something or anything, it is the time to admit that We need homegrown Solutions to the Agrarian Crisis.

Looking at Sri Lanka, and how we have embraced the Green Revolution and “Agriculture Modernization” initiatives by successive governments with the support of the so-called international culprits above; how the voracious appetite of globalized, neoliberal capitalist accumulation is being consuming the small producers of the periphery, the Sri Lankan Peasantry. The new phase of capitalist accumulation, based on the old form of accumulation, we could call it primitive accumulation or accumulation by dispossession – is rooted in the destruction of people and their livelihoods and the pillaging of resources: land, forests, minerals, water, bio-resources. When the function of the State is to be the handmaiden to Capital: to commodify, natural resources including land and water for profit; to convert food-producers into cash-crop producers either directly or as contract-farmers for agribusiness; and to “free” state lands for corporates who are assumed to be more efficient in production through the application of capital and technology and more capable of accessing markets abroad where income will be in foreign currency. One could ask that will Sri Lanka’s fate be same as our fellow Africans, and if the slippery slope of ‘Agriculture Modernization” taught us something or anything, it is the time to admit that We need homegrown Solutions to the Agrarian Crisis.

In the International Day of Struggle for Food Sovereignty for our peoples, We the Movement for Land and Agricultural Reform stand with the Sri Lankan Peasantry, Malaiyaha Tamil Community, Fishers and Pastoral Communities. While We denounce “Agriculture Modernization” led false solutions proposed by Then President, we are watchful about the incumbent President’s take on the Sri Lanka’s Agrarian Question. The problem/crisis is systemic. It could not be resolved by tampering and tinkering. We are observant about the coming administration’s willingness and ability to face it as a systemic issue, whereas the state, dominated by financial oligopolies, whereas food system is controlled by a proportion of said oligopolies.
The people’s mandate was for a “A thriving Nation, A Beautiful Life” and We Demand Agrarian Reforms and People’s Food System. We demand the government to adopt the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas – UNDROP, which is useful to strengthen the promotion and protection of the rights of food producers in Sri Lanka.

We call for Agroecology based Regenerative Agriculture Policy, where Rights of the Sri Lankan Peasantry, Malaiyaha Tamil Community, Fishers and Pastoral Communities and other people, communities who produce food are protected; where their Right to Land, Water and Seed ensured.

We are extending our hand to the Government, Department of Agriculture, Agrarian Services and to work with anybody and everybody who stand with the Food Sovereignty Movement we started decades ago. The focus of these principles is to prioritize the aspirations and needs of those involved in the production, distribution, and consumption of food. We, with the Peasant experiences and expertise on Agroecology emphasis the importance of Agroecology and Food Sovereignty as guiding principles for the food system.

Movement for Land and Agriculture reforms
16th October 2024