With little remaining domestic food reserves and currency, coupled with record-high prices for fertilizer and food triggered by man made agriculture disaster , Sri Lanka seems to have run out of options for food security.
Cabinet sub-committee is to be appointed on the directions of the Parliamentary Committee on Public Accounts (COPA) and the committee formed by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe will try to solve the man-made food crisis involving too many cooks to spoil the soup,agricultural experts said.
As a last ditch attempt,Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinge has directed relevant authorities to implement a countrywide food security programme in 225 divisions spearheaded by MPs elected from those divisions.
He gave directives to appoint a committee headed by MP Nimal Lanza to tackle the food crisis successfully and to appoint MP Harsha de Silva and representatives from the President’s Office, Finance Ministry, Agriculture Ministry, Sri Lanka Army and the private sector.
He disclosed that around four to five million people will be directly affected by the food crisis.
The Prime Minister also stressed the need for a medium and long term plan for a modern agricultural system that would create a regionally competitive market and called for it to be formulated urgently.
The top officials including the Secretaries to the Ministries and the Private Sector have been directed to provide leadership to develop and reach the targets of 336 Divisional Secretariats in the country under the Food Security Programme.
Duplicating the PM’s initiative ,COPA is to set up a separate committee to bring all the agencies responsible for tackling the current food crisis together, to take quick decisions, to follow up on the actions to be taken and to discuss future actions.
Discussions also focused on obtaining the support of SAARC Food Bank and the World Food Program (WFP) for Sri Lanka in overcoming the food crisis.
Accordingly, the possibility of catering to low-income families through the Food Commissioner’s Department, Lanka Sathosa, State Trading Corporation (STC) and Multi-purpose Cooperative Societies was also discussed.
The Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture pointed out that another committee set up by the new government under the chairmanship of Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva will meet at the Prime Minister’s Office.
