Economic Reforms Cannot Ignore Sri Lanka’s Farmers

Abstract

Historically and culturally Sri Lankan society idealises its farmer. Advertisements even for the recent 2015 presidential elections were replete with images of farms and farming communities. But economic policies and reforms in the last decade have failed the farmer. They tended to focus on an increasing array of subsidies and price guarantees that socialised the cost of low productivity farming, without developing the ability and infrastructure of the farmer. This insight suggests that future economic reforms should focus on public and private sector initiatives that can alleviate the problems of the farmer to increase support for success in existing farms, increase mobility towards more productive farming and increase opportunities for mobility to the industrial sector.