Many countries stockpiling food for their people
The COVID- 19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and climate change have been the cause for the current global food crisis. Currently 40 of the global economies are stockpiling food and agriculture inputs for their own citizens. “A few years back we produced more rice than what we consume. But today there is a 50 per cent drop in rice production. All our inputs for agriculture such as fertiliser, crop protection to the hybrid seeds are imported and only a percentage is produced locally,” said Chairman National Agribusiness Council Mario de Alwis at a webinar organised by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce on the topic of “Food Security Challenges” this week.
He said the private sector has a big role to play to avert a food crisis with its seven million people in the farming community. But the SME sector is running out of capital with an old fashioned banking system in the country that seek collateral as they are risk averse in granting loans. Small businesses play an important role in food security as they buy all the harvest. The small rice farmer needs Rs. 230,000 to produce and cultivate an acre of paddy. Post - harvest food wastages could be avoided if vegetables and fruits are transported by railway from Dambulla to Kekirawa and to Hunupitiya as lorries do not have fuel to transport them.
Director General of Agriculture Dr. Ajantha de Silva said the Department of Agriculture and the agricultural sector plays an important role when faced with food security challenges in the country. “We were self- sufficient in paddy some years ago. The yearly requirement for rice is around 2.4 million tonnes ( MT) of rice. To sustain the poultry industry it is necessary to cultivate 600,000 MT of maize during the season. But we managed to cultivate around 360,000 MT of maize annually with other hybrid varieties and the rest was imported. The ministry have devised a long, medium and a short term plan to over- come the food crisis in the country,” he said.
Director of Business Development
Ceylon Biscuits Ltd Rukshan Gunatlleka said the rural farming community has been lesser impacted than the urban farming community due to simple life styles and because they exchange their commodities with village traders and vendors. The urban farming community is at more risk as they are highly dependent on the food supply chain and due to high cost of living. They also have a limited food buffer stocks at their homes unlike the rural farmers. Urban communities are more vulnerable to malnutrition due to less intake of calories and due to social unrest. “We strongly believe that reforming agricultural policies is essential to overcome the food crisis. Decisions have to be taken by the authorities on research data and other facts available to them. Supply chain issues also have to be addressed to avoid a food crisis. Armed forces with their manpower also have to mobilised in the food production drive. Thirty percent of the post - harvest crops are lost due to poor handling and new techniques have to be adopted to avert a food shortage,” he said.
Hayley’s Agro Fertilisers CEO Nandalal Perera said there was huge upheaval in agriculture during the COVID-19 pandemic when people went to their villages and started cultivating. In 2020 the government urged the private sector to import fertiliser and in 2021 due to high cost of gas and other chemicals crop protection and fertilisers were affected. China which produces 32 per cent of fertilisers restricted the export of Urea in 2021. “We were importing the bulk Urea from China and prices tripled in August 2021,” he added.