Veteran perspectives Archives

December 11, 2017

In recounting the history of the Sri Lankan plantation industry, there are numerous examples of industry veterans whose work made vital and lasting positive contributions to the industry, and the people whose lives are directly and indirectly connected to the planation sector. Prominent among such contemporary planters is the locally and internationally renowned Dr. Dan Seevaratnam.

Having officially retired in 2014 following a storied 40 year career at some of Sri Lanka’s leading Regional Plantation Companies (RPCs) Dr. Seevaratnam developed highly specialised expertise in the country’s primary crops, and is still remembered as an individual who prioritized the welfare of his employees as an essential pre-requisite to performance, earning him the moniker ‘the People’s Planter’.

Working in the industry throughout its shift from state-controlled management into the era of privatization, Dr. Seevaratnam was a pioneer in developing a new, more inclusive plantation model that focused on the improving quality of life through systematic interventions combined with a successful, sustainable business model. However, among Dr. Seevaratnam’s most notable accomplishments was his role in championing concerted diversification into the oil palm sector.

“One of the biggest problems that we faced, even at that time was the acute shortage of labour. Given the labour intensive nature of the majority of Sri Lanka’s plantation crops, this shortage was a real issue. People were leaving the industry; and with good reason. Though tea was a reasonably profitable crop, there was no way for us to continue it in the low country and rubber had been a non-starter for many years. So from a purely business perspective and keeping in mind the labour dynamics, oil palm was the most viable crop for our investment, and I believe that is still strongly the case today,” Dr. Seevaratnam explained.

A highly lucrative crop that has become increasingly ubiquitous in modern times, oil palm is a popular edible vegetable oil that is regularly used for food preparation across the globe, and is also commonly used in the commercial food industry, and in cosmetics and a wide variety of consumer goods.

Given the commodity’s increasing usage, global demand for oil palm continues to rise, with approximately 64.5 million tonnes of palm oil was produced globally in 2016. Collectively the global palm oil market’s value is projected to continue to expand from US$ 65.7 billion up to US$ 92.8 billion by the year 2021. Meanwhile, from a production standpoint, oil palm is the world’s most efficient crop.

He noted that soya bean oil, the closest competitor to palm oil, accounts for approximately 29.8% of total vegetable oil production however, as a crop, Soya Bean requires the largest land area – approximately 103.8 million hectares of cultivated land or approximately 58.4% of the global land extent under vegetable oil crops, in order to produce 41.8 million MT annually. Canola accounts for 24.4 million MT produced from 33.3 million hectares or 18.7% of the global land extent under oil crops while Sunflower oil accounts for 14.6% of such land, but produces 10.5% or 14.8 million MT per annum.

In comparison, Oil Palm far outstrips any of its competitors, producing 59.4 million MT or 42.3% of the total global requirement for vegetable oil – using just 14.8 million hectares of land which is just 8.3% of all land across the globe used for cultivating crops for vegetable oil.

While Sri Lanka’s first oil palm plantations were established in the late 1960s, Dr. Seevaratnam’s involvement in the sector represented a radical step forward for the Sri Lankan oil palm industry. During his tenure as CEO at Namunukula Plantations, Dr. Seevatratnam oversaw the planting of 1,000 hectares of oil palm in the Matugama region, and was also involved in the establishment of 7,000 hectares of oil palm in West Kalimanthan, Indonesia, and later spearheading the highly successful diversification efforts of Watawala Plantations, which at the time, already had established oil palm cultivation.

“During my career as a planter, there were certainly many points which I look back on with pride, however as far as I’m concerned, our greatest achievement during my time as a Planter was not in turning around unprofitable companies, but in the rapid turn-around in the quality of life of the estate communities which I worked with; and this is keeping in mind that when I retired from Watawala Plantations, it was making the highest profits from any of the RPCs.

“The year I left, we had 15 international, regional and local awards. But that is not what I’m most proud of. Seeing this community, and the amazing transition in terms of quality of life through their hard work, that is something which I will continue to look back on with pride, and I can state with full confidence that this remarkable transformation would not have been possible without our diversification into oil palm”

In that regard, Dr. Seevaratnam advocated for continued support towards the further expansion of sustainable oil palm cultivation in Sri Lanka as an ideal vehicle for promoting the socio-economic development in Sri Lanka. He based his argument on three fundamental factors: the economic benefits to the country through the substitution of imported edible oils; the potential for improvement to livelihood and quality of life for workers; and the overarching impact that such improvements would have on strengthening Government revenue collection by broadening the income tax net.

“Oil palm is probably the only commodity crop in Sri Lanka where the worker is paying income tax. You can compare this with paddy and tea, where workers who engage in these crops rarely – if ever – earn sufficiently to fall into the tax bracket. Meanwhile both of those sectors result in enormous drains on Government revenue in the form of various subsidies,”

“Unlike the garment factory where probably half to 60% of value addition is on imported material, with plantation crops like oil palm, apart from the seed material, everything is locally grown and it is all completely locally owned from the plantation to the to the mill and this is a huge advantage for the country if we can take a strategic approach,” Dr. Seevaratnam explained.

Lack of awareness the main obstacle to oil palm cultivation

When asked about whether he had faced significant resistance to the cultivation of oil palm during his tenure as a planter, he noted while there had been obstacles, the majority of problems had arisen out of a lack of proper awareness about oil palm, and its potential for social development.

“As you may know, change in any form entails resistance in this country and unfortunately, oil palm has not been an exception. This can become a serious hinderance to development and during my time there were instances where gangs had gotten onto the estate and slashed plants in the nursery and even those working on the estates. A lot of this resistance stems from the characteristics of oil palm as a crop and the established cultures that have developed around the main cash crops like tea and rubber.”

To illustrate his point, he cited the customary practice established among rubber tappers where latex that dripped into the coconut shells used for tapping rubber overnight; colloquially known as a ‘cup lump’. While legally the property of the companies, this cup lump is often taken at night by those living in nearby villages for sale at a price of around Rs. 200 per kg.

“When rubber is replaced with oil palm they tend to feel that this small bit of income is also being taken away from them, and they don’t understand how this crop will benefit not just those working on the estates, but also the surrounding regions. I have personally witnessed this transformation at an advanced stage in Indonesia and Malaysia and in its earlier stages in places like Udugama. This is why it is imperative that we conduct awareness campaigns, and show these people just how much of a positive impact that oil palm cultivation in improving the prosperity of a region,” Dr. Seevaratnam stated.

He stated that in many instances, when these types of cultural biases were combined with well-meaning but ultimately misinformed or completely false perceptions about the environmental impact of oil palm that resistance to its cultivation tended to emerge.

“It is unfortunate that this negative perception of oil palm has come about. It’s difficult to ascertain a single cause for it; there are all types of ideas being aired as to water consumption and fertilizer use, but what these people fail to grasp is that this is one of the world’s most efficient plantation crops. It uses a little more resources than rubber to produce a crop that is exponentially more valuable. If managed with proper agronomic practices, there is absolutely no reason why oil palm cannot be cultivated in a socially and environmentally sustainable manner. I believe the first step should therefore be to conduct sensitization programmes in areas ear-marked for cultivation.

“By explaining to these people the true picture of oil palm; that in actual fact is not harmful for the environment when proper practices are followed, and that they can drastically improve their livelihood, and enjoy unprecedented economic development for themselves and for their region, I think people will be more cooperative. We must work together with all stakeholders to bring about such a result.” Dr. Seevaratnam stated.

A lucrative harvest leveraged for social and economic development

Elaborating on the remarkable development enabled by oil palm cultivation, Dr. Seevaratnam explained how in parts of Malaysia that had been embarked upon oil palm cultivation, the standards of living had rocketed up for those in the area – as evidenced by the construction of schools, machine workshops and an entire micro economy centered around oil palm.

He pointed to similarly transformational examples of development in the Udugama region following the successful establishment of oil palm cultivation.

“A simple way to understand just how drastically the lives of these people who actually live in close contact with these plantations has improved, is to do a quick socio-economic survey and compare with areas of rubber cultivation. The difference is like chalk and cheese. If you visit a cooperative shop in the Nakiyadeniya estate, they now stock products like Sustagen and Nestomalt, and Sensodyne toothpaste.

Caption: One of the largest motorbike showrooms outside Colombo is in the Udugama region

While Sri Lanka currently has 8,500 hectares of land being utilized for oil palm cultivation; all of which is managed by 4 of the island’s regional plantation companies while the Government has set out a target of 20,000 hectares of oil palm cultivation. More RPCs are now embarking on their own diversifications into the oil palm business, replacing, most often through the replacement of unproductive rubber crops.

September 7, 2017

It has been over 150 years since Sri Lanka witnessed the establishment of its very first tea plantations and while the crop and the island have since become synonymous with one another, today Sri Lanka’s tea industry faces challenges on an unprecedented scale. From labour shortages to the need for greater replanting and the crippling ban on chemical weedicides that has led to drastically lowered yields, it is clear that carefully considered steps must be taken by all stakeholders in order to ensure the continued legacy of tea in Sri Lanka.

With nearly a century of plantation sector experience between them, Vernon Tissera and Major Malcolm Peiris elaborated on their experience in the industry and offered insights into some of the present challenges facing the tea sector. Both Tissera and Major Peiris got their start in the plantation sector at Whittalls Estates & Agencies Ltd with the former joining fresh out of school in 1950, and the latter in 1955.

Tissera’s roots had always been in the plantation sector, having been born on the estate managed by his father, who also served as a superintendent for Whittalls, hence from a young age, Tissera had always aspired to join the industry. Working briefly under his father, Tissera was thereafter assigned to Drayton estate as a creeper and over the next six years would rise from the rank of assistant superintendent at Battawatte Estate, Madulsima, he thereafter joined High Forest estate as a Senior Assistant.

In the years leading up to nationalization, he developed a profound understanding of the intricacies of Ceylon tea and serving as a leading figure in early replanting initiatives, and following a brief period working as a manufacturing advisor to Carritt Tea Estates in South India before returning to Sri Lanka to work for the Janatha Estates Development Board (JEDB), where he later served as Chairman in 1990. From crop to cup, Tissera developed extensive knowledge into every aspect of the tea industry, only retiring in 2002, a full 52 years later.

“Over those initial years we were certainly faced with many challenging situations, but I would say that most of these were very directly related to conditions on the ground, and so in the early years, I would say that Diyagama West and Kirkoswald Estate, Bogawantalawa were some of our most challenging estates. Even there, we were able to eventually set it right and although it required fairly substantial investments at the outset, the returns in term of improved yield more than made up for it over time,” Tissera explained.

Particularly in the latter case, he noted that on Kirkoswald with only 27 % of VP tea in bearing, a yield of 2000 Kgs per Hectare was achieved which even today is held up as a successful case study for replanting.

Shifting the discussion to present day challenges, Tissera noted that even today, replanting remained an urgent concern, however he noted that unlike in the past, the current levels of interference with the plantation sector’s management was a growing concern. In that regard, he added that moving forward, it was absolutely imperative that the management of RPCs be chosen carefully in order to ensure that only those individuals experienced in Plantation Management be allowed to steer the course of each company, warning that failure to do so would almost certainly lead to serious challenges in the industry over the medium-long term.

“During the time of nationalization, it was certainly a very different ballgame, there were lots of strikes and like many other veteran planters from that era, we of course had a disagreements with Trade Unions and leaders like Mr. Thondamman, however at the end of the day, we were all cognizant of the fact that the work had to get done, and eventually some reasonable compromise was reached.

“With the shift towards privatization too, the mood was mostly quite optimistic, and for me personally, I never had to face another strike situation, or deal with any untoward Government interference, because while it was a form of semi-Government operation, we were mostly left to our own devices, and from what we see today, this is no longer the case,”

A clear example of this type of interference according to Tissera is the unreasonable ban on chemical weedicides like glyphosate.

“I believe that the glyphosate ban is a clear example of over emphasis on issues that frankly do not exist. To my knowledge, we have never had a single case of CKDu in the estate sector and as Dr. Waidyanada has noted all produce in the estates has been carefully tested for residues which have been proven beyond a doubt to be at levels extremely far below the European accepted Standard at 700 parts per billion as opposed to 1 part per billion in soil samples water and Vegetables tested in Sri Lanka.”

Major Malcolm Peiris calls for greater collaborative development

Joining the industry just after Tissera, Major Malcom Peiris was hand-picked by the warden of St. Thomas’s college following a request made by the then Chairman of Whittals Estates, Dimo Green. Starting creeping at Matuwagala, Kiriella under an European Superintendent, Major Peiris quickly rose through the ranks and within just 6 months, had himself reached the rank of Assistant Superintendent for the Golinda Group where he helped to oversee the management of both tea and rubber estates.

Initially moving more deeply into the rubber sector when he was promoted to the Maha Oya rubber estate in Dehiovita, Major Peiris was eventually transferred to Warakapola under the era of nationalization and was thereafter made a manufacturing advisor for rubber, while serving as a Superintendent on the estate, in addition to his capacity as a visiting agent (VA).

Subsequently returning to tea, while also managing rubber estates, Major Peiris spent the next three decades working closely with labour in the estates to develop and hone productivity despite numerous varied challenges and by 1991, was appointed as Regional Chairman of Horana under the State Plantations Corporation, under the auspices of famed planation’s minister of that era, Ranjan Wijeratne – himself an ex-planter. During the period leading up to privatization, Major Peiris served for 3 years in Mathale and Horana respectively, and a further 2 years in Ratnapura before moving to the Central Board in Colombo.

By the time of privatization, Major Peiris was serving as a Director at Pussellawa Plantations where he oversaw tea and rubber estates for another four more years before retiring in 1997. Similar to Tissera’s journey in the plantation industry, Major Peiris too was able to advance replanting initiatives, particularly in rubber estates under his management, and to a lesser extent, in tea.

“Even in that time replanting was an extremely expensive process and there were a few who were unhappy about these plans but we knew that it was crucial to the continued success of the industry so we went ahead on a large scale and proved that it was viable and could be done.

“One of the main challenges however, is that unlike rubber, tea has substantially more points per hectare to replant and so we could only replanting for tea at a much lower rate. Even then we faced significant challenges in this regard, and my main concern for the industry is how they will manage to make the investments they need into replanting, especially given the labour shortages that will get worse over time,” he stated.

Particularly given the substantial challenges facing the industry, Major Peiris called on all stakeholders to work together in order ease the substantial burden being placed on the industry, particularly in relation to cost of production, labour shortages, and the ban on glyphosate.

“The fact that labour wages will continue to increase is something which I feel is inevitable, and this is something that must happen if these communities are going to be able to achieve the independence they need proactively improve their own living standards. The only way to sustain such improvements will have to be through a collaborative effort from all stakeholders.

“The ban on glyphosate is a good example of a failure to consult properly with the industry and its stakeholders. We used glyphosate for years and it was highly effective in controlling weeds and that is the key concern. If not glyphosate, then some other substance needs to be allowed, but the end goal has to be to support tea producers with everything that they need to move this vital industry forward,” Major Peiris stated.

Veteran perspectives: Dr. Dan Seevaratnam reflects on a legacy of social empowerment through oil palm

Veteran perspectives on replanting, glyphosate and 150 years of Ceylon Tea: Vernon Tissera and Major Malcolm Peiris