A food shortage created by choice

Sri Lanka was a country where its kings had a specific role in food production and that was to build tanks and ensure there was enough water for farmers to engage in agriculture. 

The kings extracted taxes from the people and that was the price citizens paid for the security provided for them by the king. Sri Lanka being an island was an easy target for invaders and the ancient history books and literature produced by historians suggest that the king’s duty was to protect the country and ensure security. The caste system prevailed then and there were families entrusted with agriculture. Other aristocratic families were traditionally handling finance. The system was simple, but it worked to maintain stability in a small island like ours. 

The only little hitch was that an ambitious person from a lower caste was in a useless position and had no chance of raising his living standards through the pursuing of education; which in other countries aids the automatically climbing of some of the rungs of the social ladder. 

As the years rolled by this social class system in this island was pushed aside thanks to the introduction of free education. Ambitious individuals studied hard and earned a better ticket to life. Some of them entered politics and one of them even went on to become the president of this country. 

Even during the time of President Ranasinghe Premadasa-who took great pride in talking about his humble beginnings-the focus was to help maintain the downtrodden masses and their professions rather than to encourage them to embrace other better paying professions. 

Old photographs of yesteryear underscored the fact that Si Lanka was actively involved in agriculture and other productions, but there was a middleman somewhere who profited heavily through his prowess for transactions; leaving the hard working farmer in a poor financial position. Those old photographs show children and even some adults with an agriculture background looking under fed or in a malnourished state. Sri Lanka never saw its farmers driving away in cars after being in the profession for decades unlike in countries such as Australia and South Africa. 

The politicians of Sri Lanka had that underhand plan to keep the farmer poor and dependent on government aid; like receiving manure at a subsidized rate. There were politicians who wished to see local agriculture fail because they could import essentials and make a quick buck through the profits gained. Another major concern which the state authorities don’t want to address is the fact where much of the crop is wasted due to rotting, transport issues and largely because of the destruction created by wild animals like monkeys, elephants and peacocks. We also cannot forget the fact that a large share of the crop is often devastated by insects and worms. Some of these problems are allowed to persist because they help as tools to control the poor peasant.

When crop is destroyed or the harvest is poor farmers have to go begging to the politician who’ll offer help in return for votes. Sometimes generations are in debt to politicians because of taking help and they cannot even think of breaking a voting tradition and creating a system change. 

Right now Sri Lanka is in the news for its people suffering from moderately acute food insecurity. That figure is serious as the number reads 3.9 million. The President’s media division however counters this news and maintains that food insecurity is prevalent only in certain specific regions of the island and not everywhere. The government states that this is an improvement from last year when comparisons are made with figures available on the subject the previous year. 

Students fainting during morning assembly-due to not having means to have breakfast- must be dealt with in the short term, but in the long run famers must be helped to stand on their feet and earn enough profit to make their involvement in agriculture justifiable. 

Though we thought that the chains of slavery were slashed after receiving independence from the British the present political set-up reminds us that a hungry man unlike a hungry animal is easy to control.