Govt. wants food security plan for Sri Lanka
View(s):The government is considering drawing up a food security plan for Sri Lanka as the country tries to overcome a national food crisis.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe during his tenure as Prime Minister had raised the need for a food security plan, Peradeniya University Senior Prof. Buddhi Marambe told the Business Times.
He pointed out that the discussion was based on the need to establish a framework but no particular time period was detailed at the time.
Sri Lanka is currently going through a food crisis that was a result of the former President Gotabhaya Rajapakse’s decision to go fully organic in 2021 as a result of which the government called off fertiliser imports. This led to the Maha season yields dropping significantly by about 40 per cent. As a result of the drop in harvest the country is now facing severe shortages of rice, the staple diet that needs to be imported and without the necessary foreign exchange the country is looking towards bilateral and multilateral assistance to feed its people.
Fertiliser brought down at present is being allocated solely for paddy and maize cultivation and about 5000 metric tonnes (MT) is to be given for tea production. It had also been pointed out that the current fertiliser imports are a result of talks between India and Sri Lanka that led to the direct purchases made under the Indian credit line from Oman for a total of 65,000 MT out of which 44,000 MT had already been shipped.
The rest is due to arrive in two weeks’ time and is likely to be used during the upcoming Maha season.
The Agriculture Ministry has already called for tenders for the purchase of 150,000 MT of fertiliser for the Maha season under the US$110 million World Bank pledge. A further 36,000 MT of Muriate of Potash is to be provided under Asian Development Bank support. The government will distribute this fertiliser through its 566 Agrarian Centres to farmers to be purchased at the rate of Rs.10,000 per 50 kg bag of fertiliser.
Under this plan to make fertiliser and seed paddy available to farmers there is some hope and if everything goes according to plan and if all inputs are made available there would be a good Maha season, Prof. Marambe said.
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