Food security, sustainability and conservation of dollars

Traditional potatoes cultivated by farmer Sarath Premathilaka 

• Farmer dedicated to cultivating indigenous food, advises Lankan economic experts 

By Surya Vishwa 

Sarath Premathilaka of Palledelthota, Galaha, Kandy, is 65 years old. He cultivates indigenous plant varieties of Sri Lanka, including a vast range of traditional potatoes.

In a perfect world, he would be an ideal economic expert to advise on the economics of traditional agriculture and the need to conserve traditional farming knowledge of a country. He has not studied agriculture in any foreign land. Or learnt agriculture from those who have. He is a former carpenter. He has self-taught himself what is genetically within us all; connection to our soil and the related knowledge therein. 

Although he has not learnt agriculture through the artificial, synthetic and Western scientific based (poisonous) routes that for some seven decades ruined the soil of Sri Lanka, he is aware of all these lethal substances and their reactions on biodiversity. He shows some small bottles and sachets containing an array of artificial coaxes of the earth and destroyers of weeds/insects explaining how these turn the soil and our bodies into cemeteries. He states he keeps them to show schoolchildren brought by educative-based excursions by their teachers to visit his land. 

He then shares some basic alternatives through the traditional ways; use of certain plants as insect repellents (suited to a Buddhist country he explains) which do not kill but send insects away. He states that for weeds, insects and nourishing of the soil there have been countless methods used by the ancestors of Lanka and says he will speak to me in detail of these another day. He shows a couple of ancient-looking books which has have a range of indigenous knowledge including traditional non-harmful (Buddhistic) farming.

He specifically emphasises that if it took seven decades for policymakers, farmers and agriculturists to get addicted to chemical farming that it would be foolhardy to try and reverse it in weeks or months. 

Meanwhile, I wonder why we do not have a farmer like this as the agricultural minister of a country whose economic lifeline is agrarian. Advice by someone like farmer Sarath Premathilaka would certainly have saved Sri Lanka the billions it spent (the money it does not have) to another country for importing ‘organic’ fertiliser last year, weeks after the lightning decision to ban chemical fertiliser. The overall result we have today of this visionless leadership is that the average persons, including farmers have further entrenched in their minds the false view that the soil ‘needs’ chemical agriculture. 

Premathilaka explains further.

“Nona, I do not know what kind of experts we have or what they call the knowledge that these experts have. Certainly I am not interested in politics. All I know is that I have two acres of land and that I cultivate hundreds of varieties of indigenous plants of my country following the decrees of nature. I was earlier a carpenter and I took to traditional farming around 10 years ago after being identified with cancer,” he explains.

He is fully cured of his illness now and this too he can explain it simply in a manner that even an ‘expert’ could understand.

“All these plants which double up as medicine and food emit a particular energy. It will be impossible to remain sick with deadly illnesses such as cancer if we function hourly and daily engaging with these plants and giving them life.” 

His revelation makes me wonder why we do not make cancer patients grow indigenous medicinal food and have them live amongst forest gardens instead of miserable concrete hospitals. This would be an alternative to the expensive and deadly chemotherapy which destroys both good and bad cells of the body and makes it akin to a forest fire which ends up with a charred, destroyed ecosystem and finally an assured immunity destroyed death. As this farmer explains, the human body is an extended part of nature’s ecosystem. 

I ask him if he has been ‘vaccinated’ for COVID and he laughs instead of answering. But he does ask me quickly – ‘Nona, do you know how much is spent on these foreign vaccines?’ If they continue this, have you done any calculation how much we will lose monetarily as a nation?” he asks me. 

I have not done such a calculation and I tell him that he should ask the finance minister before I realise that we do not have one at the moment! I suggest that he asks the health minister.

This farmer then goes on to explain the medicinal properties of Sri Lanka’s ancient diet which is all on the large plate that is his land. It is replete with traditional potato/yam varieties that one does not see in the Lankan market. Just to reiterate, these are indigenous immunity boosting foods. They do not cost dollars. They are better than vaccines. If we had a food policy that grew these traditional yams then we do not need to squander money importing the global poisonous chemical potato to please politically linked import mafia. 

If we had a wise food policy like this farmer has adopted, we would not be at the currency draining mercy of the global health ‘industry’ and the global food ‘industry.’ We would be self- sufficient and we would not be the ignorant, visionless, indebted paupers of the world we are today.

The below sentiments make up the rest of the wisdom of this farmer:

“Nona, like I said earlier, I do not know what they teach our experts in these foreign universities and local university following foreign syllabuses. But as far as my knowledge goes, I think those who have not studied the policies of the ancient kings of this countries are utter fools.”

“We are a land where even a stick, if thrown to the ground would produce life from the earth. It is in such a land that we blindly followed ‘educated’ global experts and poisoned ourselves, the earth and all that lived in it. These experts managed to brainwash cleverly that the land needed it to ‘feed’ the people. Maybe the hospitals needed it to benefit from the purse strings of patients,” quips Premathilaka. 

The following are a list of traditional yams provided by this farmer: Kirisambal ala, Kekatiya ala, Nelum ala, Gothala, Ini ala, Yaku ala, Sewel ala, Natu Ala, Nati ala, Kindala, Kidaran ala, Guru Ala, Rathala, Angili ala, Raja ala, Kahata ala, Pathra ala, Goda ala, Ingi ala, Hathawariya ala, Katu Hithurala, Hiruwelli, Peni ala, Damanila, Raththawalli, Rathagala, Thedala, Kombu walli, Kiriwelwila, Ledhanna, Gamburala, Kekulu ala, Aluma, Dehi ala, Kirikodol, Thiruththuwalli, Hingurala, Kukulala, Udala, Hirithala, Thunmas ala, Katu ala, Ratala, Wel ala, Kandala, Kiri ala, Rathadala, Erukka, Buthsarana, Rewul ala, Deshiya ala, Yakutala, Kohila. This is not an exhaustive list of all the traditional yams of Sri Lanka which according to chef and traditional food researcher Publis total to around 300.

All of the abovementioned food have exceptional health properties of varying sort. Some have cooling effects and others have heat-inducing impacts on the body. Almost all these are used in diverse medications. No chemicals are needed to cultivate them. All these indigenous plants are strongly resilient. They can survive with little attention and grow wild. Premathilaka’s land looks more like a mini forest.

Apart from traditional potato varieties the other plant species growing in his land include Vanila, Bulath, Lankan Kaha, Rathu Thampala, Rathu Nivithi, a variety of manioc which is said to turn the skin golden when consumed regularly, Sewendara and many Lankan varieties of fruits and vegetables that include beans and chillies. Gotukola grows like grass. In fact I see mostly only Gotukola and very little grass. 

If Sri Lanka does finally end up, at some timeframe, having worthwhile persons with practical, intellectual and wisdom based knowledge governing the country, we may have agricultural, finance and health ministers educating themselves respectively of the basic benefit to the country accrued by promoting cultivation of traditional food through traditional methods. They will hopefully then form a staunch and sustainable integrated economic security and sustainability policy that correctly assesses the economic significance of traditional, non-poisonous indigenous farming. 

They will hopefully do this not because the IMF or the World Bank or the ADB or the UN (with due respect to these organisations) or any other international expert panel tells us (because we do not seem to know what to do with our country). They will hopefully do this because whether Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim or Burgher, they form one body of this ancient land and thereby need to safeguard the basic self-respect the nation has today lost and which shame our ancient rulers (who were never communal or corrupt). 

Below is the summing up of the analysis of the sorry plight of Sri Lanka in this farmer’s own words: “Globally now we are known as beggars of the world. Indeed we are now poor. Very poor. Everything that has the tagline of ‘development’ is done by ‘aid’ or ‘assistance’ or ‘grants’ by other countries. Was this how our ancient kings built this country? What is this ‘development’ they have done for seven decades? Where is it written that we made Sigiriya or Ruwanweli Seya or established the ancient hydraulic civilisation this country is known for, with ‘foreign aid’ or ‘loans’? For every inch of the so called modern roads built with foreign loans, generations have to pay.” 

“Have the experts or intellectuals advising the current politicians studied the policies of our own ancient rulers? Have they researched and comprehended the continued relevance of these policies to the present day? Have they done this before they study international economic strategies and policy priorities of foreign countries which have been made to suit their contexts?”

Note: Farmer Premathilaka’s efforts to conserve and cultivate rare indigenous yams and plant varieties is encouraged mainly by agricultural officer R. Abeysinghe of Pilimathalawa. Abeysinghe, alongside few other agricultural officials who understand and respect traditional farming, have been spearheading a deeply personally committed drive to encourage planting of traditional plant varieties, especially indigenous potato varieties. He works with farmers such as Sarath Premathilaka to see to the proliferation of indigenous nature-based food that could be the game changer in conserving dollars Sri Lanka has thrown down the international food/medicine import drain over seven decades of ‘independence.’