Rome 12 September : A total of 6.3 million people in Sri Lanka are facing moderate to severe acute food insecurity.the situation is expected to get worse if adequate life-saving assistance and support for livelihoods is not offered in the coming months, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) warned in the latest report released on Monday .Two consecutive years of poor harvests have resulted in the nearly 50 percent reduction in production, coupled with decreased imports of food grains due to the limitations of foreign exchange as per the FAO/WFP joint Crop and Food Security Assessment Mission (CFSAM) report.
The report states that immediate food assistance and livelihood programs as well as existing social assistance systems, are essential to allow households access to healthy food, especially severely acute and moderately insecure ones.
Without assistance the food security situation is likely to worsen, especially during the period between October 2022 and February 2023, the lean season due to the low harvests of staple food items, in particular paddy rice and the current economic crisis.
“In order to prevent the further degrading of food security and to help in the recovery of agriculture’s production, livelihood assistance for smallholder farmers should be the top priority,” said FAO Representative in Sri Lanka Vimlendra Sharan.
“With approximately 30 percent of the population dependent on agriculture, increasing the capacity of production of farmers could ultimately improve the resilience of the sector.It will also reduce the demand for imports in the face of shortages of reserves of foreign currency and prevent the increase in food insecurity.”
“Months into this devastating economic crisis families are running out of options .They are exhausted.More than 60% of households are eating less and eating more expensive and less nutritious food.This comes at a moment where financial pressures caused the government to cut down nutrition programs including school meals and fortified foods for mothers and children who are undernourished.WFP’s primary goal is providing immediate nutrition and food aid to those in the most vulnerable communities to avoid further decline of their nutritional status,” said WFP Representative and Country Director in Sri Lanka, Abdur Rahim Siddiqui.
On the instruction of the government At the request of the government, the joint Crop and Food Security Assessment Mission visited all 25 districts in the country between June until July 2022 in order to analyze the levels of agricultural production in 2022, with a focus on the production of the staple cereals that are most commonly used, and also to evaluate the food security of households.
A serious macroeconomic crisis in Sri Lanka has caused severe shortages and a rise in the cost of essential goods, such as food energy, agricultural inputs and medicines which severely impact economic activity with significant interruptions to the production of agricultural products.
The production of paddy rice, the primary food item, is predicted at 3 million millimeters in 2022, which is the lowest since the 2017 harvest that was affected by drought most likely due to the low yields due to reduced use of fertilizers according to the report.
The production of maize, which is mostly used for animal feed is 40 percent lower than the five-year average, with negative effects on the production of livestock and poultry.
Also, the production of fruits, vegetables, and other crops that are geared towards export, like coconut, rubber, tea and other spices is below the average, which is causing significant reductions in household incomes and export earnings.
The prices of the majority of foods have been rising steadily since the final quarter of 2021.
They reached the record-setting level in August 2022 with the year-over-year inflation rate reaching more than 94.
vg/
