Issues affecting the sugarcane farmers in Hingurana

Issues affecting the sugarcane farmers in Hingurana

As lands were acquired for sugarcane cultivation from time to time since 1965, a large number of farmers who traditionally engaged in farming in those lands have lost their lands. Some of these farmers have been given alternative lands on the condition that those lands should be used for sugarcane cultivation only, but the ownership of those lands have not been properly transferred to them.

Further, as some of those alternative lands that have been given to these farmers are not suitable for sugarcane cultivation, the farmers are suffering huge losses. Apart from that, the farmers have become debtors since the Company has obtained loans from the bank in the names of these farmers for the cultivations.

As a whole, the management of the Company is not making the required investments in the development of sugarcane cultivation, and consequently, every farmer has been severely affected.

At a moment when the country, on the whole, is faced with an economic and food crisis, the lands that were used for sugarcane cultivations have become unsuitable for sugarcane cultivation and have been left fallow without being used for any purpose.

The lands that have been acquired (in many cases, by force) for sugarcane cultivation are those that were cultivated by Muslim farmers, and giving those lands to the Sinhalese farmers who were settled later has also caused tension between these ethnic groups.

The solutions we propose for this issue

Short-term solutions

Distributing the lands that have been left fallow without being used for sugarcane cultivation among farmers for food crop cultivation.

The government, together with the Sugarcane Research Institute, Department of Agriculture and other relevant state institutions, should carry out a scientific evaluation about the suitability of the identified lands for sugarcane cultivation. Farmers should be allowed to cultivate paddy or other crops in the lands that are not suitable for sugarcane cultivation.

The responsibility for providing extension services, quality planting materials and inputs, and machinery to sugarcane farmers lies with the company and the government. A pricing mechanism should be created so that the farmers can get a fair price for their harvest. Government departments such as the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Agrarian Development should provide technical assistance to farmers to develop their cultivation. The effective methods that are applied in paddy cultivation can be adapted and used in sugarcane cultivation as well.

Farmers' organizations should be strengthened in order to enhance their voice and their decision-making power. They should be provided with the opportunity to participate in the decision-making mechanisms led by the District Secretary. The District Secretary, as the representative of the government, which owns 51% of the shares of the Company, should work in close collaboration with the farmers and their organizations and should represent their voice at decision-making platforms.

Medium-term and long-term solutions

The government should initiate a process (such as an independent commission) to investigate into the historical injustice of acquisition of lands in the Ampara District for sugarcane cultivation. Violations of land rights and possible ways of returning those lands to their original owners should be looked into in such investigations. In case those lands have been used by other farmers for a long period of time, the original owners of those lands should be given compensation or alternative lands.

Farmers who get alternative lands should be given proper ownership of those lands through land permits or grants. They should be allowed the freedom to decide on the crops to cultivate in their lands and the method of cultivation.

A proper technical assessment should be carried out on the viability of sugarcane cultivation as a mono-crop and about the possibility of introducing an integrated, sustainable cultivation system. The government should invest in research and in the implementation of agro-ecological practices in the integrated sugarcane cultivation in order to improve its efficiency and sustainability.

All outstanding loans payable by the farmers to the Company should be cancelled in order to help them rebuild their lives and livelihoods.

The local law enforcement authorities should initiate criminal prosecution of threatening and intimidation of these farmers, and those behind these incidents should be brought to justice.

The company should withdraw the baseless court cases that have been initiated with the view to intimidating and silencing these farmers. If the Company tries to pursue these cases, the government should stand up for the farmers and should take all necessary steps before the court to get the cases dismissed.