Over the past three months, the Ministry of Agriculture has gone from celebrating ‘enough rice stocks to feed Sri Lanka till December’ to ‘grow crops on every inch of land available’. Many would find this swift change laughable, except we are talking about food security of a bankrupt nation. Between June of last year, and May this year, Sri Lanka had a food security scare. Many food items were freely available, or were priced beyond reach inflation and racketeering soared. As such, Sri Lanka can ill-afford to stumble into another crisis, before we have had the opportunity to recover from the ongoing one. Rice, and other grains are the staple of most Sri Lankans, and a vast cross section of the vulnerable and poor communities are those who are dependent on agriculture.

Just yesterday (20), the Ministry of Agriculture directed the Department of Agriculture to submit an immediate report on the cultivation of big onions in Sri Lanka. This move came as India, a major rice and vegetable importer to Sri Lanka, slapped a 40% export levy on big onions, to ensure India’s domestic market is left with sufficient quantities of vegetables, as the continent also suffers from a soaring temperature and drought. Last month, India banned the export of rice, in order to prevent a shortage for the domestic market. Countries like India are proactive to address issues they see on the horizon. Therefore, they have taken measures to ensure sufficient food stocks for their populace. Like in India, Sri Lanka was aware of the impending drought, and even a child would have understood with drought, the crop harvest will decline. However, in Sri Lanka, the Government is only now taking action to address drought related issues, moving after the fact to enact measures to mitigate an issue which is already in effect.

According to The Minister of Agriculture Mahinda Amaraweera, although the cultivation of big onions was carried out progressively in the past, it has become extremely unsuccessful during the past seven to eight years. Which is why the Government is now scrambling, amidst a drought, with acute water shortage for cultivation, to call for a ‘report’ on big onion production. If the Ministry of Agriculture and Trade, and the many institutions linked to food security have done their duty over the last seven years, the downward trend in cultivation of a food staple like that of big onion could have been addressed. However, in Sri Lanka, expecting such forward thinking seems to be wishful thinking. Similarly, the national staple, which the Government claimed will be a bumper crop, remains unsold to the state purchasing mechanism due to farmers seeking a higher price, the Agriculture Ministry claims. However, farmers complain that the Government does not allocate adequate funds to buy paddy and convert it to rice. There is a clear failure in regulation. The Ministry has acknowledged that while it has adequate rice stocks till December, it does not hold a buffer stock.  

Another key shortcoming is that Sri Lanka does not maintain a strategic national reserve of grains, like rice, mung beans and other cereals. State-owned storage facilities are derelict and prone to corruption, with many paddy farmers, refusing to store paddy in the ageing facilities citing poor environmental control and pest attacks which take a toll on the grains which are stored. Sri Lanka desperately needs to review its food security structure and put in place means to maintain mills and store rice and other gains to act as a buffer stock.

Just last year, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) worked closely with the Government in an effort to mitigate the food crisis that was prevailing. A key issue which was built was building resilience for food security, be it with environmental resilience, supply chain disruption resilience, and expanding the locally grown crop basket to better prepare the local community in terms of resilience. However, it seems the Government is again slow to learn and will repeat past mistakes. Sri Lanka has learnt bitter lessons from droughts and food insecurity before. Recent supply chain disruptions due to pandemic, marine traffic and conflict have shown that small states like Sri Lanka with shallow pockets are invariably vulnerable, when heavily dependent on imports, for food security. The State must act now, not only to modernise the agriculture of the island, but also to build reserves and resilience, so that the public will not suffer from hunger again.  This is one of the key needs of the hour as the state estimates that nearly 4 – 7 million of the population are now near or beneath the poverty line.