Climate Change; the Sri Lankan Farmer’s nightmare
By Thulasi Muttulingam -:11 Mar 2014
Climate Change; the Sri Lankan Farmer’s nightmare
“Vaanmuhil valaathu peiha…”
In photo: Harvesting of Paddy in Kilinochchi, Sri Lanka (2011)
May the rains fall correctly in the right seasons… goes an ancient Tamil prayer. The Tamils have always been an agrarian community and still are, in most areas of Sri Lanka and India. The rains however did not fall ‘correctly’ this season. Drought has hit Sri Lanka and the worst hit areas are the North and East.
“Our harvest this season has been particularly bad due to the drought. We are very far from our targeted achievement in harvest outputs and fear food insecurity. However we are confident the Central Government will step in to supply the deficit,” says P. Ayngaranesan, Minister of Agriculture of the Northern Provincial Council.
The Minister of Agriculture of the Central Government, Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena is not worried. “We have enough bumper stocks to supply the shortfall already. We don’t foresee the need to even import, at the moment,” he said.
Sri Lanka is usually self-sufficient in its rice production although it both imports and exports rice. According to a recent report released by the Socio Economics and Planning Center of the Department of Agriculture, if the next paddy season (May- September) is normal, there will be enough from this year’s harvests alone to feed the nation till the end of January 2015. If the next season falls to the worst levels forecast, the combined harvests would still be enough to feed the nation till early December 2014, they maintain.
In the North however, rice prices have already started to rise steeply. A kilogram of parboiled red rice, traditionally consumed in Jaffna is now Rs. 89 as opposed to Rs.65 just a month ago. According to P. Ayngaranesan, his ministry is taking steps to avert exorbitant price hikes by buying up all the harvested grain through the state’s co-operative stores. The idea is to enforce price controls.
“However the initiative is not as successful as we had hoped. During the war years, the Northern co-operatives made a name for themselves as corrupt so the Government Agents refused to release funds to them to buy paddy when requested. I have been in talks with the GAs however, and they are slowly releasing funds now, which means we are buying the rice but not as much and as fast as we had hoped,” says Ayngaranesan.
He said they might try to cap the price at Rs.90/kg but were reluctant to take that measure as yet, because traders might get used to that ceiling price and not bring it back down even if the potential shortfall was made up for. “We also don’t want to fear-monger in case it gives rise to hoarding of the rice by the traders – which thankfully hasn’t happened yet,” he added.
Rice bowl of the North Full Story>>>
“Vaanmuhil valaathu peiha…”
In photo: Harvesting of Paddy in Kilinochchi, Sri Lanka (2011)
May the rains fall correctly in the right seasons… goes an ancient Tamil prayer. The Tamils have always been an agrarian community and still are, in most areas of Sri Lanka and India. The rains however did not fall ‘correctly’ this season. Drought has hit Sri Lanka and the worst hit areas are the North and East.
“Our harvest this season has been particularly bad due to the drought. We are very far from our targeted achievement in harvest outputs and fear food insecurity. However we are confident the Central Government will step in to supply the deficit,” says P. Ayngaranesan, Minister of Agriculture of the Northern Provincial Council.
The Minister of Agriculture of the Central Government, Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena is not worried. “We have enough bumper stocks to supply the shortfall already. We don’t foresee the need to even import, at the moment,” he said.
Sri Lanka is usually self-sufficient in its rice production although it both imports and exports rice. According to a recent report released by the Socio Economics and Planning Center of the Department of Agriculture, if the next paddy season (May- September) is normal, there will be enough from this year’s harvests alone to feed the nation till the end of January 2015. If the next season falls to the worst levels forecast, the combined harvests would still be enough to feed the nation till early December 2014, they maintain.
In the North however, rice prices have already started to rise steeply. A kilogram of parboiled red rice, traditionally consumed in Jaffna is now Rs. 89 as opposed to Rs.65 just a month ago. According to P. Ayngaranesan, his ministry is taking steps to avert exorbitant price hikes by buying up all the harvested grain through the state’s co-operative stores. The idea is to enforce price controls.
“However the initiative is not as successful as we had hoped. During the war years, the Northern co-operatives made a name for themselves as corrupt so the Government Agents refused to release funds to them to buy paddy when requested. I have been in talks with the GAs however, and they are slowly releasing funds now, which means we are buying the rice but not as much and as fast as we had hoped,” says Ayngaranesan.
He said they might try to cap the price at Rs.90/kg but were reluctant to take that measure as yet, because traders might get used to that ceiling price and not bring it back down even if the potential shortfall was made up for. “We also don’t want to fear-monger in case it gives rise to hoarding of the rice by the traders – which thankfully hasn’t happened yet,” he added.
Rice bowl of the North Full Story>>>
