Ousted President Gotabaya Rajapaksa left the country on Wednesday, the day he was due to step down amid intense public pressure to step down over his handling of the country’s finances.
Several factors have caused Sri Lanka’s foreign exchange reserves to deplete, leaving the government unable to pay for vital imports of food, cooking gas, fuel and medicine – all of which are in short supply.
Observers warn that if the situation does not improve soon, a third of the country’s nearly 22 million people could sink further into food insecurity as the country endures its worst economic crisis since independence in 1948.
The World Food Program (WFP) has warned that around 62,000 Sri Lankans are in such a dire situation that they need urgent aid.
Food insecurity is defined by the United Nations as the “lack [of] regular access to enough safe and nutritious food for normal growth and development and an active and healthy life.” Severe insecurity means that a person has “run out of food” and may go a day or more without eating anything.
WATCHES | Sri Lanka’s embattled president leaves country amid economic collapse:
Sri Lanka declared a state of emergency as the president fled the country
Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has fled the country as protesters stormed the prime minister’s residence demanding his resignation over an economic crisis. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was named interim president, further angering Sri Lanka amid shortages of food, fuel and electricity.
Famine in Sri Lanka by the numbers
Food inflation rose 80 percent in June from a year earlier, according to the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, while the economy slumped and food and fuel supplies continued to dwindle. The said the UN more than 60 percent of Sri Lankans were already choosing to cut back on meals to increase their food budget. In a terrible example of the lengths some vulnerable people must go to eat, the British Sky News reported that some families travel nearly 10 kilometers on foot to get a free meal from a community kitchen in Colombo. Appealing to donors, the charity Save the children last week an estimated 12 percent of the country’s poorest households are taking “crisis-level” steps to survive food shortages and economic collapse. Those measures include borrowing money, removing children from school or selling items, the organization said, citing its own survey of more than 2,300 families. There is a strong concern for pregnant or lactating women and children, according to the WFP. The agency said a national school meals program that “provides nutritious meals to one in four students” has faced disruption and a nutrition support program for breastfeeding mothers and young children has been “cut”. “Combined with income losses, this could lead to higher rates of malnutrition among women and their children,” WFP said. The World Food Program said 60 percent of households in Sri Lanka “regularly eat less preferred and less nutritious foods, reducing portion sizes and cutting meals to cope.” (Arun Sankar/AFP/Getty Images)
Domestic food production is declining
Domestic food production was also hit by the Rajapaksa government’s decision in April 2021 to ban the import of chemical fertilizers and agrochemicals, including herbicides and pesticides, in an apparent shift towards organic farming. But the movement was abrupt, with no plan to introduce organic fertilizers and no boost to domestic production. By the time the ban was partially reversed in November, farmers reported a 40 to 50 percent loss in rice crops, said the UN’s resident coordinator in Sri Lanka, Hanaa Singer-Hamdy. Daily Mirror last month. Fruit, vegetable and tea crops also suffered. “Low-income households are hardest hit and [are] adopting negative coping strategies,” he said. The cost of chemical fertilizers has also risen dramatically since then, amid a global shortage, leaving farmers in the lurch.
The effects of the war in Ukraine
Russia has been accused of weaponizing food exports in its war with Ukraine on middle- and lower-income countries, and Sri Lanka appears to be one of the victims. Ukraine is the main exporter of grain to lower income countries. is the fifth largest source of food imported into Sri Lanka, according to The World Bank. The Economic Complexity Observatory, an open-source data visualization website, shows that cereals accounted for more than a third of Sri Lanka’s total imports from Ukraine. Other imports included vegetables, pulses, cooking oils and various spice seeds. A farmer collects crops from his field near the front line in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region on July 4. An estimated 22 million tonnes of grain have been blocked in Ukraine with the ongoing Russian naval blockade of Ukrainian Black Sea ports, and pressure is mounting as the new harvest begins. The country usually ships about 40 percent of its grain to Asia. (Efrem Lukatsky/The Associated Press) President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky accused on the Sri Lankan crisis for Russia, on a video camera at the Asia Leadership Conference in Seoul, saying it should serve as a warning about the global implications of Russia’s invasion and blockade of Ukrainian grain and food shipments. “The shocking rise in food and fuel prices caused a social explosion. No one knows now how it will end. However, you all know that the same outbreaks are possible in other countries affected by food and energy crises,” Zelensky told the conference .
Is there any relief on the horizon?
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who was appointed deputy president by Rajapaksa before he defected, informed parliament of the government’s intention to host international donor conference which will include major Asian donors such as India, China and Japan. According to Economic Timesthis will not happen until Sri Lanka reaches a bailout agreement with the International Monetary Fund, although The governor of the Central Bank warned The current political instability may further delay the talks. Sri Lanka’s parliament is set to elect a new president on July 20. Last month, the United Nations appealed for US$47 million in humanitarian aid funding to help 1.7 million Sri Lankans in need by September. In a statement to CBC News last week, Global Affairs Canada said the federal government provided an initial $50,000 in humanitarian assistance in May through the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. On The Coast8:28 Sri Lankan migrant puts turmoil in context Raj Retnanandan, a Calgarian who immigrated from Sri Lanka in 1981, weighs in on the economic and political turmoil in Sri Lanka and suggests a path to stability, prosperity and trust in his former country.
