Agricultural and meteorology experts in the country warn that Sri Lanka is heading for a major food crisis if there is no rain in the coming months, as the country’s paddy stocks will last only a few months.
According to Agro Meteorologist of the Department of Agriculture, Dr. B.V.R. Punyawardhana, if no rains are experienced in the upcoming months, the country may face a serious food shortage.
¨We currently have paddy stocks enough to last only till February next year,¨ he said adding that, therefore, importing rice thereafter is inevitable unless Sri Lanka experiences rain. At present, the Department of Irrigation can only provide water for around 20-30 per cent of the Mahaweli areas while it is facing similar difficulties in other cultivation areas, Punyawardhana said.
Director General of the Department of Meteorology, Lalith Chandrapala said the current dry spell will most likely continue unless the country experiences a cyclone or a low pressure system develops in the Bay of Bengal.Compared to Sri Lanka’s average rainfall, this year the weather patterns have been erratic,¨ he said, adding that he hopes the rainfall deficit will improve with the March inter-monsoonal rains. ¨If not, a food security crisis will be unavoidable.”
As the result of the impending food security crisis due to the ongoing drought, Minister of Finance Ravi Karunanayake last week announced that on the advice of President Maithripala Sirisena, the government in preparation for a worst case scenario has taken steps to import 300,000 metric tonnes of rice to maintain as a buffer stock if the need arises.
Sri Lanka has experienced a sharp drop in rice production in the main cultivation season with only a third of the area was sown so far, after a weak minor season amid the worst drought in the last five years.
Currently only 30 percent of the 830,000 hectares of paddy land that can potentially cultivated during main Maha rice cultivation season has been sown, according to Punyawardena.