SRI LANKA FACES FOOD WOES
Beleaguered nation in a race against time for fertilisers to boost yields amid worsening crisis
SRI Lanka’s prime minister has warned of a food shortage and vowed the government will buy enough fertiliser for the next planting season to boost productivity as the island nation battles a devastating economic crisis.
A decision in April last year by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to ban chemical fertilisers drastically cut yields, and although the government reversed the ban, no substantial imports have taken place.
“While there may not be time to obtain fertilisers for this Yala (May-August) season, steps are being taken to ensure adequate stocks for the Maha (SeptemberMarch) season,” Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said in a message on Twitter on Thursday.
“I urge everyone to accept the gravity of the situation.”
Economic activity has slowed to a crawl as the nation faces a dire shortage of foreign exchange, fuel
and medicines.
“There is no point in talking about how hard life is,” said A.P.D. Sumanavathi, 60, a woman selling fruits and vegetables at the Pettah market in the capital yesterday.
“I can’t predict how things will be in two months. At this rate, we might not even be here.”
Nearby, a long queue formed in front of a shop selling cooking gas cylinders, the prices of which have soared.
“Only about 200 cylinders were delivered, even though there were
about 500 people,” said Mohammad Shazly, a part-time chauffeur who said he was standing in the line for the third day to be able to cook food for his family.
“Without gas and kerosene oil, we can’t do anything. Without food, we are going to die.”
On Thursday, the central bank governor said foreign exchange had been secured from a World Bank loan, as well as remittances to pay for fuel and cooking gas shipments, but supplies had yet to flow through.
Inflation could rise further to a staggering 40 per cent in the next couple of months, but it is being driven largely by supply-side pressures and measures by the bank, and the government was already reining in demand-side inflation, the governor said.
Inflation hit 29.8 per cent in April, with food prices up 46.6 per cent year-on-year.
As anger against the government spread, police fired tear gas and water cannons to push back hundreds of student protesters here on Thursday.
The protesters were demanding the ouster of the president, as well as the prime minister.
Sri Lanka’s economic crisis has come from the confluence of the Covid-19 pandemic battering the tourism-reliant economy, rising oil prices and populist tax cuts by the government of President Rajapaksa and his brother, Mahinda, who resigned as prime minister last week.
Wickremesinghe, appointed as prime minister in Mahinda’s place, is accused of a being a stooge of the brothers.
The Group of Seven economic powers supports efforts to provide debt relief for Sri Lanka, G7 finance chiefs said on Thursday in a draft communique at a meeting in Germany after the country defaulted on its sovereign debt.