4 June 2022 12:00 am Views - 590
The government is bracing for a major food shortage in the coming months by taking steps to cultivate every possible land, an official said. The Movement of Academics to Safeguard Agriculture, a concerned group of academics in the field has already worked out an action plan and handed it over to both the Agriculture and Local Government and Public Administration Ministries to be implemented.
Sri Lanka’s annual rice production is 2.3 million tonnes under normal circumstances.
However. Prof. Buddhi Marambe of the Peradeniya University’s Agriculture Faculty said the country suffered a crop reduction nearly by 50 per cent in the last Maha season compared with the previous season because of the previous Maha season due to the lack of fertiliser for cultivation. He said the crop of the present Yala season is also bound to fail by a similar percentage.
“It means the country will run short of rice after October once the available stocks are exhausted,” he said.
Rice is the staple food of the country. Maize crops also failed by 65 per cent over the fertiliser issue.
The movement says it is important to focus on producing seed paddy required for the next season.
The action plan includes proposals for the cultivation of short, medium and long term crops to avert the food crisis.