Director General of Agriculture Ajantha de Silva says that people should be interested in producing food crops at home. He says that this will bring some relief to the economic crisis faced by the country.

A program called ‘Ratama Wawamu – Ekwa Dinamu’ has been launched for this purpose and the Director General of Agriculture stated this while participating in this program in Kandy today.

Ajantha de Silva says that the program of cultivating the required food items in own homes will be started in the backyards of the officers of the Department of Agriculture and to set an example, home gardening will be started in the office premises.

He also stated that the Department of Agriculture is responsible for supplying grains such as cowpea, green gram, undu and sesame seeds as well as low country vegetables such as pumpkin, potato and okra without any shortage of seeds.

The people are undergoing unprecedented hardships at the current time. There is a disjuncture between what government leaders have been saying and what is materializing.  Assurances are being made that shiploads of fuel have been unloaded.  However, many service stations remain closed and those open have lines stretching for kilometers even overnight.  The small 15-member interim government drawn from all parties that was promised by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to resolve the present crisis was not appointed.  Now the government appears to be heading towards a large sized one dominated by the ruling party with a full complement of ministers and state ministers.

It seems to be the case that the present composition of parliament will not permit good governance. This is plainly the belief of those who continue to peacefully protest against the government in person at various protest sites.  This is also the feeling of the many citizens who protest in their hearts and minds wherever they live and work.  It is distressing that 19 of 27 hours of parliament time was spent to discuss the burned houses of the politicians. If this continues no one will be able to prevent this country from going to a situation of severe anarchy which will lead to further political upheavals and injury to people not only by violence but by hunger as well.  

The National Peace Council is dismayed at the appointment of 23 new secretaries to ministries by the president, all of whom belong to the ethnic majority community.  This insensitive action will not be conducive to promote a sense of belonging to the ethnic and religious minorities who constitute nearly one third of the population of the country.   We are also dismayed that public minded citizens who volunteered to give evidence regarding the violence used against peaceful protestors in front of the prime minister’s official residence and the presidential secretariat have had their passports impounded. This makes it seem as if the victim has become the accused.

The National Peace Council notes that the appointment of four cabinet spokespersons will not assure the people or the international community that a cohesive and stable government is in place.  In this context we are concerned that the World Bank has issued a statement that they will not be in a position to financially assist the country until an adequate macroeconomic policy framework is in place for which political stability and unity is a prerequisite.  The National Peace Council calls for elections to be held as soon as possible to enable the people to give a fresh mandate to those who will bring about change.  We believe a government with a new mandate can win the confidence of the Sri Lankan people and the international community to get the country out of the quagmire it is in.

The National Peace Council of Sri Lanka

The United Nations General Assembly adopted on 23 May 2022, a Sri Lanka sponsored Resolution A/76/L.56, declaring 1 March as World Seagrass Day. The resolution was adopted by consensus, and co-sponsored by 24 countries.

Ambassador Mohan Pieris, Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the UN, introduced the resolution under Agenda Item 15: Integrated and coordinated implementation of and follow-up to the outcomes of the major United Nations conferences and summits in the economic, social and related fields.

In his introduction, Ambassador Pieris highlighted Sri Lanka’s interest as a littoral state in bringing attention and awareness on a small but significant aspect of universal importance in combatting climate change. He highlighted the importance of seagrass as a carbon sink, in protection against coastal erosion, in stabilizing the sea bottom, increasing the resilience of the most vulnerable ecosystems, and increasing food stability for a number of marine creatures, and the pivotal role it plays in curtailing the effects of climate change.  

The World Seagrass Association closely supported the Government of Sri Lanka in this endeavor.

Seagrasses are one of the most valuable marine ecosystems on earth covering around 300,000 square kilometers in 159 countries and six continents. They provide a range of critical environmental, economic and social benefits. The most significant benefit being the enormous carbon sequestration potential of seagrass, storing up to 18 percent of the world’s oceanic carbon, which is greater than that of rainforests which makes protection and restoration of seagrass a vital tool in efforts to adapt and mitigate the adverse effects of climate change. The vital functions of seagrasses also include its role in stabilizing the sea bottom and providing ecosystem support via food and shelter for a number of marine creatures, including commercial and recreational fish species, as well as endangered and charismatic species such as turtles, dugongs and manatees. However, seagrass ecosystems are being destroyed as a result of human activity. The United Nations Environmental Programme Publication ‘Out of the Blue: the value of seagrasses to the environment and to people’ states that “7 per cent of seagrass marine habitat is being lost worldwide per year, which is equivalent to a football field of seagrass lost every 30 minutes”.

The initiative was a collective effort of studying sea grass ecosystems and examining restoration and conservation through Nature-based Solutions by an NGO and academics and paving the way to highlight the importance of scientific-evidence based approaches at the policy level.

The  Biodiversity Secretariat of the Ministry of Environment, Department of Aquaculture & Fisheries at the Wayamba University and the Blue Resource Trust worked together with the Ocean Affairs, Environment and Climate Change of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and contributed to the process and coordinated with the Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the UN in New York in this regard.

The introductory speech by Ambassador Pieris can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/S3EB7C0I0kY

The full adoption of the resolution can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/gnJ2huRVs3k

Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the UN

New York

25 May, 2022