SRI LANKA SHOULD TAKE NECESSARY MEASURES TO CURTAIL CROP DESTRUCTION BY ANIMALS: PRESIDENT

Two thirds of food produced in Sri Lanka is destroyed by animals and therefore, policy makers and the government must take steps to put an end to this destruction sooner than later, President Maithripala Sirisena said. There is no doubt that various Buddhist, Hindu and Christian religious and social organizations and animal rights campaigners will oppose any remedial measure taken to prevent food destruction by animals but a country like Sri Lanka cannot afford such losses because malnutrition, hunger and anemia are common among a large number of women and children in the country, President Sirisena stressed.

Delivering the keynote address at the 74th ‘World Food Day’ last afternoon at the BMICH, President Sirisena pointed out that the destruction of food round the year by elephants, birds, monkeys and many other animals is common in Sri Lanka and the amount wasted is huge.

“The studies show that malnutrition is around 16% - 17% of the population. Another 16% is diabetic. Altogether, nearly 33% of the population is suffering either from diabetic or malnutrition. Under this situation we must look serious whether we must let animals to destroy one third of our food production,” President Sirisena stressed.

President Sirisena said a fortnight back he met the Executive Director of the International Food Policy Research Institution (IFRPI) Shenggen Fan in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

“During our discussion, I told him that a large amount of food produced by farmers is destroyed by animals and asked what other countries do to control the situation. His reply was ‘kill the animals that destroy food produced for human consumption’. He said no other country gives food produced for people to animals like Sri Lanka,” he stressed.

President Sirisena said rich people in Sri Lanka waste food as a habit and the leading establishment that waste food in large stocks was Parliament.

In Parliament, food are prepared for hundreds of Members but only a few eat them and very big amount of expensive fruits, vegetables, meats and other food and confectioneries are destroyed on daily basis.

“It is not fair to give food to animals while people live in hunger. We must not only produce nutritious, quality, healthy and clean food but protect and preserve them. Sri Lanka for centuries remained an agricultural country. For thousands of years Sri Lanka remained a self sufficient country. This is in spite of 200 million people suffer due to famine worldwide.

Time is ripe for Sri Lanka to take all preventive measures using technology, new knowledge and skills to minimize effects on food production from natural disasters like floods, droughts. Certain areas in Sri Lanka were severely affected from floods and droughts in addition to destruction of food by animals.

People in this part of the country think the entire country gets rain because of prevailing weather condition. It is not correct. Many parts of North East is still remain in drought,” President Sirisena added.

President Sirisena expressed his deep gratitude to the UN, World Food Programme and Food and Agriculture Organization for their support over the years to Sri Lanka.

Agriculture Minister Mahinda Amaraweera also spoke.