Vegetable farmers continue to suffer due to the Covid-19 outbreak as tonnes of vegetables are being discarded due to the lack of sales. All Island Farmers Federation (AIFF) National Organiser Namal Karunaratne claimed that vegetable farmers were still unable to sell their harvest. “For almost two months, vegetables farmers have been making huge losses, having to throw away their stocks because they were unable to sell. There is a huge problem where these farmers are losing their entire harvest profits and now are not even able to cover their costs,” he said. He pointed out that the Government has continued to ignore the plight of these farmers. Meanwhile, Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture Neil Bandara Hapuhinna said that one of the key issues was the lack of a proper distribution network. “There is no transport and distribution mechanism due to the anti-Covid-19 measures. Earlier it was the private sector that carried out distribution,” he said, also noting that the private sector was being restricted due to the lockdown/curfew measures. He said that proper distribution networks would need to be established. “The main thing is to ensure proper transport channels are set up and hopefully that will happen as the curfew is relaxed in the coming days, but this doesn’t fall under the purview of the Ministry of Agriculture,” he added. By Skandha Gunasekara