Food Crisis Worsens In Sri Lanka
Colombo, May 20: Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Friday warned that the country is on the verge of a very severe food shortage, Al Jazeera reported.
The shortage of food in Sri Lanka has been brought about by the decision in April last year by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa when he banned the use of all chemical fertilisers in agriculture which drastically reduced crop yields.
Although the government has reversed the ban, no substantial imports have yet taken place to calm the situation.
Prime Minister Wickremesinghe said that while it may not be possible to obtain fertilisers for this Yala [May-August] season, but steps are being taken to ensure adequate stocks for the Maha [September-March] season, while urging Sri Lankan’s to accept the gravity of the situation.
Meanwhile, governor of Sri Lanka’s central bank said that foreign exchange had been secured from a World Bank loan and remittances to pay for fuel and cooking gas shipments, but supplies are still to flow through.
He warned that inflation could rise to a staggering 40 percent in the next couple of months driven largely by supply-side pressures and measures by the bank and government were already reining in demand-side inflation. Inflation hit 29.8 percent in April with food prices up 46.6 percent year-on-year.
