Record harvest loss, food shortages hit dry Sri Lanka
Traditional farming practices are difficult to change
COLOMBO, 21 August 2014 (IRIN) - Sri Lanka's government is scrambling to ease the impact of record harvest losses on millions of farmers as the country enters its tenth month of an acute dry spell.“It’s severe. In some areas in the North, North Central and Eastern Provinces, the water levels in the irrigation reservoirs will be sufficient only for drinking purposes and that, too, will be barely enough. No harvesting will be possible [until the next rains],” Lalith Weeratunga, secretary to President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the country’s top-ranked public official, told IRIN.
