Achieving food security:Integrated plan necessary

BY Dr. C. S. Weeraratna
csweera@sltnet.lk

According to United Nations’ Committee on World Food Security, “Food security is achieved when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Food Pogramme (WFP) estimate that 6.3 million Sri Lankans are facing moderate to severe acute food insecurity. This could be attributed mainly to shortage of food and high food prices. The latest WFP assessment reveals that 86 percent of families are buying cheaper, less nutritious food, eating less and in some cases skipping meals altogether. This unfortunate situation is the result of many factors among which are poverty, unemployment, decrease in land productivity, scarcity of foreign exchange reserves, depreciation of the local currency, etc. The report further states that the production of maize, mostly used as animal feed, is about 40 percent below the past five-year average, with negative effects on poultry and livestock production. Likewise, the production of vegetables, fruit, and export-oriented crops, such as tea, rubber, coconut, and spices, is well below average, causing a significant decline in households’ income and export revenues. The total cereal import requirement in 2022 is estimated at 2.2 million mt. In the first six months of 2022, more than 930,000 mt of cereals were imported, leaving an outstanding import requirement of 1.27 million mt. Given the persisting macroeconomic challenges, there is a high risk that the remaining import requirement will not be met.

In view of this situation, President of Sri Lanka has launched a programme to ensure food security in the country. The vision of this Food Security Programme is to ensure every citizen has access to enough food at a reasonable price to lead an active and healthy life and to ensure that no citizen of the country should starve due to lack of food and no child should be a victim of malnutrition.

Food Security was not an issue in the past. Even a few years ago we were almost self sufficient in rice. But, the foolish decision of the former President of Sri Lanka Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa banning imports of fertilizers such as urea and other agrochemicals affected local production of rice causing us to import rice which has resulted in lowering of food security level. Not only rice production, production of maize, mostly used as animal feed, vegetables, fruit, and export-oriented crops, such as tea, rubber, coconut, and spices, have been affected.

National food insecurity is due to many factors. Among these are wild elephants roaming in some of the dry zone villages causing death to many and destroying crops, Chronic Kidney Disease affecting thousands of farmers in the dry zone, inadequate water supply, lack of reasonable transport facilities, non availability of fertilizers such as urea, and other agrochemicals at correct times, inability to sell the produce at reasonable prices, land degradation etc. House-hold Food Security is closely related to the economy which has deteriorated during the last few years mainly due to drop-in crop production and several other factors. Prices of most food items have been on a steady rise since the last quarter of 2021 and reached a record high in August 2022, with the year-on-year food inflation rate at nearly 94 percent, further limiting the purchasing power of households.

According to Dept. of Census and Statistics around 14.3 % (nearly 3 million) are below poverty level. Unemployment, lack of resource production factors such as land and/or capital are the main factors causing poverty. Ill-health and sickness among family members, addiction to drugs and alcohol, frequently occurring natural disasters such as floods and droughts in some parts of the country, inborn defects such as deformities, blindness, inadequate knowledge on nutrition also tend to affect food security among households.

Land Degradation: One of the important contributory factors for the decline in the productivity of land is Land Degradation. Soil erosion, soil compaction, and nutrition depletion, cause productivity of land to decline, making crop production less profitable. In view of the importance of land degradation, the Ministry of Environment, in 2005, established an expert committee on Land Degradation and mitigating the effects of drought in SL. This committee comprised a number of experts in the field of land management and the main role of the committee was to advice the Ministry of Environment, on issues related to controlling land degradation. At the first national symposium on Land Degradation held in 2010, organized by the Ministry of Environment and the expert committee on Land Degradation, the participants, who were representing many land-related institutions in the country, revealed that a substantial amount of soil/ha/year is lost due to soil erosion. They were of the view that urgent action such as implementation of proper land use planning and the soil conservation and environment act etc. need to be taken by the relevant organizations to control land degradation.

Milk is an important food item for people, especially children. The total annual expenditure on importing milk and other dairy products is around Rs 40 billion. If we are to reduce our trade deficit which is around US. $ 10 billion annually and increase food security, increasing local milk production is important. To increase local milk production, a few years ago, the Government brought down 5000 heifers from New Zealand and Australia. The heifers imported were distributed among middle-scale entrepreneurs in Nuwara Eliya, Matale, Kandy, Kurunegala and Badulla districts. According to newspaper reports the Government had spent Rs. 520,000 per heifer and sold it to farmers at a lower rate of Rs. 200,000. It has been reported that some of the imported cows suffer from Bovine Viral Disease (BVD) and around 200 out of the 5,000 heifers imported to Sri Lanka have died without contributing to local milk production. Simply importing high yielding cattle will not increase milk production, unless they are properly fed and appropriate veterinary services are provided. Cattle imported from countries such as New Zealand and Australia are not acclimatized to local conditions and hence their productivity tends to decline. The farmers complain of insufficient pasturelands to feed the cattle. There is no appropriate programme to cultivate improved pastures such as Brachiaria sp. Napier and CO3. Pasture grasses can be grown under coconut but there was no effective programme to improve pasture production. It is foolish to import cattle to enhance milk production in the country without implementing an integrated programme to upgrade local cattle, making available cattle feed and improving veterinary practices in the country.

There are numerous organization in the country involved in various aspects of food security which is related to several Sustainable Development (SD) Goals. Authorities such as SDG council, Agric. Ministry, Paddy Marketing Board, Institute of Post Harvest Technology, Pulses and Grain Research and Production Authority, Research Institutes etc., need to take cognizance of all these issues and develop an integral plan and implement it if they are keen to achieve Food Security in the country.