By Garvin Karunaratne, Ph.D.
On my second visit to Laya Waves I was struck with some new ideas.
To get down to the hospitality track, the sleuths who have forgotten their guns for now and are on an entirely different – hospitality track; they are a marvel. The accommodation was spick and span., cleanliness perfect, the front desk manned by Dilruksha and Chandima courteous and very helpful, even attending to my car for a small defect, and last but most important of all, the chef, Nishanta Perera, a great chef, with a hand that makes every meal tasty- mouth-watering in the extreme. At the end of a meal we wait for the next to see what he offers and he was always up to the mark. It is very rare to find a chef of that ability.
In my working life in Sri Lanka, the Administrative Service has taken me to work in eight districts and my covering the whole island for agricultural loans, fertilizer distribution and paddy cultivation for some five years, with islandwide circuits. I am thus aware of what is where. These range from the Guava belt in Belihul Oya-Balangoda, the Rambutan belt in Dompe, the Mangosteen belt in Kalutara, the Coffee belt in Kitulgala, the Pepper belt in Wellawaya, the Tomato belt in Hanguranketa, the Flower and Vegetable Belt in Nuwara Eliya- Bandarawela, where flowers grow wild and I bagged more than my salary from flowers and vegetables in my years’ stay at Nuwara Eliya, the Avacado belt from Galaha to Peradeniya, and the Dry Zone Areas-Padaviya to Anuradhapura and Moneragala to Tissamaharamsa, wherein any one season November to February all the fruit needed to make Sri Lanka self-sufficient in all fruit and juice can be produced. Today we import fruit juice and jam from the USA, Australia & Europe. Hanguranketa can provide all the tomatoes we need to provide our full requirement of tomato sauce which we today import from as far as the USA. That can be a years’ project- setting up a small Cannery and processing fruit. I am certain that it can be accomplished in a year. Once we exported coffee but today we do not grow and we import from Europe. Coffee does not grow in Europe, but is imported in seed from Africa, processed in Belgium and exported to our countries. At Kitulgala on my inspections I have been struck with the luscious coffee bunches. I know of the Cardamum- Spices belt in Kotmale- sadly denuded today by the Kotmale Dam.
It is a sad fact that these resources are not put to full use, though Mother, Nature has provided all bountifully. The produce goes to waste and the people remain within the bounds of poverty. In the Fifties and Sixties, we made progress but the rot set in, in 1977 with President Jayawardena accepting the International Monetary Fund’s Structural Adjustment Programme with open arms. That was our undoing. Told to accept the Private Sector as the Engine of Growth, we were advised to abolish and abandon the development infrastructure that our leaders had painstakingly developed- the Cannery and the Veg and Fruit Marketing Scheme, of the Marketing Department and to this day we have failed to bring back that development infrastructure to enable development to commence once again. We fail to understand that the lost infrastructure is a prerequisite for development. Unfortunately to please the IMF we have to follow their advice and seek foreign investment. We sadly forget that all foreign investment is geared not to develop our country but to take away our resources in some form or other. The latest is to come in, trade-in local currency, but take away the profits in foreign currency from our reserves. Our economic sleuths are naïve and fail to grasp.
On this Visit to Laya Waves what struck me was the two large plots where aloe vera grows wild. I have never seen that wild growth anywhere else. I inquired and the sleuths who now maintain the garden told me that the trick was perhaps the salty water and the climate.
My craze for travel has taken me to Lanzarotte, an island in the Mediterranean, where some uncultivable land on rugged sedimentary rock is being developed and aloe vera is grown on a large scale with a factory producing a full range of aloe vera products sold everywhere in the Harrods and Selfridges of Europe and USA,
My find of aloe vera thriving at Laya Waves tells, me of a great possibility in development. Its potential if tackled prudently can easily earn billions of dollars, annually to our depleted coffers, a task, if done at the pace I worked as the G.A. at Matara in 1971-1973, can easily be accomplished within two years. Working singlehandedly in Bangladesh, I designed and established the Youth Self Employment Programme and trained the Bangladeshi officialdom to continue it after my two-year assignment was over- and the result- a programme that has guided three million youths to become employed, all accomplished within nineteen months. The task of developing aloe vera will be a far easier task.
The task to develop aloe vera in Pasikuda can easily be accomplished within two years at most. This estimate of time is not out of the hat but a calculation based on sheer experience in similar exploits. My working life has been full of such exploits. So that estimate of timing can be held firm.. The best method of indicating that this task can be accomplished is to hark back to a similar or more daunting task accomplished by me earlier.. I enclose details of a similar task- establishing Coop Crayon in the Appendix.
Accessing AloeVura products at Orzola Lanzorette, I find the following products::. Gel, Oil, Drink, Cream, Moisturising Cream, anti-ageing Cream, Face Cream, Foot Cream, Night Cream, Dog Shampoo, Shampoo, Hand Cream, Relax Gel, Bath Gel.
Conducting experiments to make the varied aloe vera products will be far easier than finding the art of making crayons and establishing the Crayon Factory.
It is suggested that the Sri Lanka Army may kindly initiate action to conduct experiments at making products with aloe vera. Nishantha Perera the chef at Laya Waves could provide the leadership for the experiments at the initial stage. Further, the science lab at a College or University has to be commandeered. An alternative will be to get the Army to put up a tent and get going in Laya Waves itself and to buy essential equipment.
It would be ideal to have some officer from the army who has a background qualification in agriculture, chemistry or biology to be in charge.
This Project has to be handled by a person of standing like a Brigadier as there has to be contacted with many high ranking officials in government institutions, the Ministry of Industries, Food Technology Institutes, Department of Education, Ministries etc and the person appointed at the initial stage at the helm has to be able to shake Government Departments and spur them to action.. After a few years when the industry is well on the keel, the high ranking officer can be removed and an officer like a Lt Colonel or Major could handle the project.
May I also suggest that the land of the Army Bungalow next to Laya Wave be used to cultivate aloe vera, The land has to be prepared immediately if the planting is to be done with the November rains.
I am aware that there is a section of the Army that attends to agriculture and is actively involved in producing food crops. A Unit of that section can be put on the task of producing aloe vera at Pasikuda. Full details have to be worked out and I am dead certain of success not only in production but in developing foreign sales which will bring in an income in foreign exchange
An idea may be for an officer from the agriculture and land cultivation section of the Army to be consulted, especially to find whether any crown land suitable for the cultivation of aloe vera is available in the vicinity. If the land is available the Army can open a farm. Simultaneously the army can have seed farms, distribute to private farmers and collect the crop.
It may be interesting to note that in the USA the Army is used for many development projects. The Mission of the US Army Corps of Engineers is to deliver vital public and military engineering services, partnering in peace and war to strengthen our nation’s security, energise the economy and reduce risks from disasters”.
At New Orleans, a city below the sea level, levees(bunds) are constructed and maintained by the Army. On the Columbia River, there are stupendous hydro projects constructed and manned by the Army. I have seen these stupendous structures. The US Army is deployed in many ways for civilian functions. In my travels in the USA-I owned a MotorHome and have clocked over 50,000 miles crossing the USA thrice and have seen for myself the stupendous civilian work being done by the US Army all over the USA. It is my opinion that the Sri Lankan Army can and has to play a major role in bringing about the economic development of our beloved Motherland.
Expecting the Private Sector to contribute is wishful thinking. The Private Sector has to make a profit as its motto. Poverty alleviation, creating productivity, national development is not within their vocabulary. Projects like developing Aloe vera products have to be done by the State and the Armed Forces can easily be entrusted with that task. In the hands of the ARMY, success can be assured.
. I am aware that planting aloe vera is in progress at Wilpattu. However, that is at an infancy stage and there is ample scope for a few industries to be established in aloe vera.
I am dead certain of success. The success does not depend on the ability to grow aloe vera. Success will depend on the leader chosen, who has to have a personality; foreign sales will depend on the charm of the officer selected. Both must be of the type that can, as the saying goes- take fire underwater. ,
I wish to be associated with any initiatives and can assure success. It would b a pleasure to contribute to the development of our Motherland.
Garvin Karunaratne, B.A, & M.A.( Peradeniya), M.Ed.(Manchester)
, M.Phil (Edinburgh) & Ph.D. (Michigan State University)
Former SLAS, G.A.Matara.(1971-1973)
Commonwealth Fund Advisor to the Ministry of Labour & Manpower in Bangladesh, 1982-1983, who designed, directed and established the Youth Self Employment Programme in Bangladesh, the premier employment creation programme the world has known, a programme that has left its imprint on the sands of time.
Author of
How the IMF Ruined Sri Lanka & Alternative Programmes of Success.(Godages) 2006
How the IMF Sabotaged Third World Development(Godages/Kindle,2017)
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