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8.7m do not have proper diet, millions face worsening hunger, joint UN study finds
View(s):By Kapila Bandara
About 8.7 million Sri Lankans, or 39.1% of the population do not have an adequate diet.
This food security assessment reflecting worsening hunger in the country despite denials, was arrived at by a joint UN assessment following a study of all districts.
Millions will face much greater hunger pangs in the next five months, the assessment found and recommends scaling up immediate life-saving help and support for livelihoods.
The Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Programme cautions in a special report by a ‘Crop and Food Security Assessment Mission’, the “situation is likely to deteriorate during the lean season from October 2022 to February 2023’’.
They warn that “the food and nutrition security situation in Sri Lanka continues to deteriorate by the day’’, as households become unable to cope any longer.
The highest levels of acute food
insecurity were found in the estate sector (57.1%) and in Central Province (41.6%).
Most Sri Lankans, or 80%, live
in the provinces.
The existing alarming level of hunger is reflected in comments by Nirmala Ekanayake, a regional education official of Sri Jayawardenepura, who told a Colombo District officials’ meeting that she heard of an incident where two A-Level students at a national school had eaten the food offerings made for the Buddha, (‘Buddha poojawa’), and another child at school had been seen eating rice with a sprinkling of chilli powder. A national list Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna politician, Pradeep Undugoda, is seen at the meeting, on a local network admitting national “shame’’. He says preventing malnutrition and food security is “not easy’’.
The international community has now begun a conversation about criminal accountability for the economic destruction caused by ruling clans.
Sri Lanka’s economy contracted by 8.4% in the second quarter from the year before. Agriculture shrank by 8.4%, latest data show. The growing of cereals tumbled by 32.3%.
The joint-UN study found that production of paddy, has slumped by 42% from the year before and is forecast at 3 million tonnes in 2022, the lowest since the 2017 drought-affected output, because of the agro-chemical ban, imposed on May 6, 2021 to much fanfare.
The governement also banned pesticides, fungicides and weedicides. So-called organic fertiliser, including liquids, produced with ceremony and rhetoric, turned out to be nauseating waste rejected by farmers. Then, the price of a 50 kilo bag of urea shot up to Rs 50,000 from Rs 1,500. The scarcity worsened the farming conditions. Production costs rocketed.
Corn production is about 40% below the past five-year average, the report notes.
“Acute food insecurity has risen dramatically, as a result of import shortages, soaring prices, livelihood disruptions, reduced household purchasing power and exhaustion of less severe household coping strategies,’’ the UN report notes.
The joint mission in June and July analysed agricultural production in 2022, especially of the main staple cereals such as rice, and to assess household food security. A team visited 2,970 households between May 31, and June 17, in nine provinces to understand food security. Other teams covered 25 districts. The Government was briefed.
The food and nutrition security of households has deteriorated in the first six months of 2022, the mission says. Over 6.2 million people (28% of the population) are estimated to be moderately acute food insecure, while 66,000 are severely acute food insecure and in need of immediate food assistance.
One in every four households is reducing the number of daily meals and nearly half of them are limiting how much they eat. About one in four households is selling possessions, reducing essential healthcare expenses and withdrawing their children from school. Acute food insecurity is when a person’s inability to have a meal puts life or livelihood in immediate danger.
The Government is not expected to be able to import seed corn and vegetable seeds to bolster the depleted seed stocks. “This raises serious concerns and could have a negative impact on the cultivation of maize and vegetables in 2022/23 “Maha” season.’’
The UN team estimates that 2.2 million tonnes of cereals will need to be imported this year.
In the first six months, a total of 932,000 tonnes of cereals (427,000 tonnes of rice, 425,000 tonnes of wheat and 35 000 tonnes of maize) have been imported, well above the average levels, mostly reflecting increased imports of rice due to the sharply reduced output.
In addition, about 45,000 tonnes of rice have been provided as food aid. This leaves an outstanding cereal import requirement for 2022 of about 1.27 million tonnes, including 594,000 tonnes of wheat, 381,000 tonnes of maize and 292,000 tonnes of rice, the UN team says.
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