By Sarah Hannan As climatic conditions worsen in small pockets of Sri Lanka due to the prevailing drought, it is crucial that long-term solutions be implemented to recover the livelihoods of many families suffering the effects of the longer period of drought in Sri Lanka. As of 12 September, the total number of persons affected by the drought across 18 districts stood at 781,952 and over the weeks, the number keeps increasing. Agriculture still plays a vital role in the social and economic framework of the country. The agriculture sector in the country employs around 2.5 million in its workforce, which is around 30% of the total labour force, but the average income of the sector is less than the average income in the country of Rs. 41,000 per capita. Post-harvest losses, unsustainable farming practices, and lack of capital for modernisation are considered to be common issues that have caused the sector to be less profitable. Rising temperatures, erratic rainfall distribution, and the increased intensity and frequency of extreme weather events have led to crop losses and negative impacts on food security. Erratic rainfall and recurrent natural disasters undermine the resilience of affected communities and threaten agricultural production, heightening the need for further investment in nationwide emergency preparedness and response mechanisms. The 2016/17 drought, the worst in 40 years, reduced national output by 53% and pushed 900,000 people into food insecurity, and was followed by the May 2017 flood and landslide emergency, the worst floods since 2003. During our visits to the North Central and Eastern Provinces, the elders of the farming communities consistently said that farming was not viable, given the changing climates and increasing water scarcity. “Every season, we prepare the land for cultivation hoping for the rains to start on certain days, but with the prevailing weather conditions, we are left to manage with the water supplied through the irrigation channels, and we have been asked to reduce the acreage of cultivation so that even with less rain, we could recover our expenses,” revealed Rishiharan, a farmer from Katpakerni in the Batticaloa District. Signs of internal migration are becoming visible as many families do not have able-bodied persons to work in the farmlands. “Our children were keen on helping us with the farming initially, but even they have now realised that the climate is not favourable, so they are all moving to the cities to seek work. Once they settle into that lifestyle, they do not want to return to the village,” informed Dharmadasa, a farmer from Maragahawewa. Furthermore, Dharmadasa informed that they lack the technical knowhow to change their cultivation methods, stating: “Many in the younger generation do not want to invest their time in the old methods of agriculture, but if new technologies are introduced and equipment is made available, they might would find farming more interesting.” Livelihood impact not assessed Last week, Centre for Environmental Justice Executive Director Hemantha Withanage, representing Sri Lanka’s civil society during his intervention at COP 14 of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) plenary on droughts, drew the attention of the delegates on the increasing number of people affected by the drought not only in Sri Lanka but also across the world and how it is impacting their livelihoods. Withanage pointed out that the state fails to measure the socioeconomic impact these affected families undergo owing to drought. “There is no segregated data in many other places, yet drought is one of the main causes for economic losses, social unrest, and rural evasion, with subsequent pressure on urban poverty and criminal acts, which finally, cause some to take their own lives.” He added that civil society organisations have diverse models for fighting land degradation, restoring lands, growing trees, and converting deserts to forests, which deserve more attention and voice to fight back desertification. “Unfortunately, very little such knowledge has been used for national policymaking and warning farmers to overcome drought-related crop failures. It may be due to the lack of dialogue between scientists, policymakers, and practitioners. It is evident that the communities cannot depend anymore on traditional weather forecasting due to the rapid changes in the weather due to climate change. They need more support from scientists and practitioners.” Should the policymakers use the latest research findings available in the International Water Management Institute, World Meteorology Organisation, and many other institutions, it can save local communities, make food production climate resilient, and restore lands, Withanage confirmed. Poor resource management “If you observe closely, you would understand that rural areas are primarily producers of food while urban areas are only consumers. The rural communities have also changed the production pattern as per urban community demands. Farmers are pushed to grow or produce non-indigenous food crops which need more inputs.” Withanage pointed out that with the constant use of chemicals and unsustainable methods of cultivation, many of the farmlands have turned in to baron land as the soil lacks microorganisms. He further stated that it leads to farmers encroaching into bordering forests and cutting them down to create new areas for agriculture where the soil is rich. The situation has been worsened by climate change. In urban communities, there is unequal distribution of resources and only a small section, the top 5%, have access to good, niche, high-nutritious food and resources, while the other urban middleclass, which constitute the majority 90%, will have substandard resources, thus affecting productivity and causing stress on the state systems of medical assistance and other cultural remedies ultimately. This conflict between the urban and rural community is adding stress on the farmers, indigenous forest dwellers, salt pan workers, and fishing communities, while the most affected are women and youth. The farmer should not live in poverty forever. “We need to understand that both rural and urban communities are failing since there is no synergy between the source and destination. When the marginal land holders are in distress, they are migrating to urban areas for better livelihoods and for some part of the substandard resources shared by the marginalised class, as compared to their rural setting which results in urban poverty.” Withanage noted that in an exhaustive groundwater scenario, marginal farmers are not getting the prime input for agriculture. He informed that systems need to be in place where governments and urban communities share resources and assist the rural and indigenous communities in terms of reforestation, and restoration of land, water bodies like rivers and ponds, mountain-top forests, and the implementation of topsoil mitigation measures, etc.

Paris Agreement and NDCs

With Sri Lanka ratifying the Paris Agreement at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the country is committed to addressing climate change and related issues. “Although the mitigation of greenhouse gases is the highlighted portion of the Paris Agreement, we still believe that building resilience of vulnerable communities and ecosystems over climate change effects within a broader framework of sustainable development should be our priority as a developing country,” Ministry of Mahaweli Development and Environment Secretary Anura Dissanayake stated. Recognising this responsibility as a national initiative for facing the threat of climate change was set in place and according to Dissanayake, the Ministry of Mahaweli Development and Environment has played the leadership role by developing the National Climate Change Adaptation Strategy for Sri Lanka in 2010 and developing the National Climate Change Policy which was adopted in 2012. The National Adaptation Plan for Climate Change Impacts in Sri Lanka for 2016-2025 was the next logical step of this initiative, which is a country-driven, gender-sensitive, and fully transparent approach to deal with climate change impacts on Sri Lanka. Elaborating further on the National Adaptation Plan, Dissanayake revealed that the plan identified agriculture, fisheries, water, human health, coastal and marine ecosystems, biodiversity, infrastructure, and human settlements as the most vulnerable sectors to the adverse effects of climate change. Furthermore, Dissanayake stated that the Paris Agreement requires all parties to put forward their best efforts through nationally determined contributions (NDCs) and to strengthen these efforts in the years ahead. With Sri Lanka’s NDCs consisting of mitigation, adaptation, loss and damage, and means of implementation, focusing 14 sectors, it consists of unconditional as well as conditional NDCs. The base line year is set as 2010 as per the Business-As-Usual (BAU) scenario and the target period of action is set at 2021-2030.

• Mitigation – reducing the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions against the BAU scenarios in the sectors of energy (electricity generation), transportation, industry, waste, and forestry. The key contributors to GHG are carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O).
• Adaptation – building resilience in most vulnerable communities, sectors, and areas to adverse effects of climate change. Adaptation will focus on human health, food security (agriculture, livestock, and fisheries), water and irrigation, coastal and marine ecosystems, biodiversity, urban infrastructure, human settlement, tourism, and recreation. Adaptation initiatives that derive mitigation co-benefits will be given due priority.
• Loss and damage – in order to address issues related to losses and damages that occurred due to extreme weather events, a local mechanism will be developed in accordance with the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage.
• Means of implementation – external support for finance, technology development, and transfer, and capacity building for the above sectors are considered in the implementation process of the NDCs of Sri Lanka.

Setting targets to achieve SDGs

In Sri Lanka, about 79 km² (0.5%) of forest land was converted to other land use types during 2000 to 2010. In addition, the land productivity declined in 9% of the land area of Sri Lanka with the loss of 55,566 tonnes of soil organic carbon (SOC) during this 10-year period. The Ministry of Mahaweli Development and Environment on 25 April 2016 had requested the support of the UNCCD to develop land degradation neutrality (LDN) targets to reverse land degradation and take care of the ecosystem services and food security of the country. Land degradation’s direct impacts include increased poverty, reduced land productivity, and loss of biodiversity. The Ministry pointed out that this trend of land degradation needs to be reversed to sustain the resource base to ensure the proper functioning of the ecosystem services and food security of the nation. The Government of Sri Lanka as a signatory to the UN Conventions for Combating Desertification (UNCCD) reaffirmed its commitment to SDG 15 and Target 15.3 to “combat desertification, restore degraded land and soil, including land affected by desertification, drought, and floods, and strive to achieve a land degradation-neutral world” by 2030 through a LDN process and identified the following LDN targets to be achieved by 2030:

• Halt the conversion of forests and wetlands to other land cover classes
• Restore and improve degraded forest (80% in the Dry Zone and 20% in the Wet Zone)
• Increase forest cover from 29% to 32%
• Reduce rate of soil degradation to improve land productivity and SOC stocks
• Reduce soil erosion of lands cultivated with annual and plantation crops

As a signatory to three Rio Conventions, Sri Lanka has already prepared the National Biodiversity Strategic Action Plan 2016-2022 (CBD), the National Adaptation Plan for Climate Change Impacts in Sri Lanka 2016-2025 (UNFCCC), and the National Action Programme for Combating Land Degradation in Sri Lanka 2015-2024 (UNCCD). As a focal point to the three Rio Conventions, the responsibility of implementing the above three national action plans lies with the Ministry of Mahaweli Development and Environment. In order to achieve the targets set out by these multiple plans, the Government has implemented various activities under “Haritha Lanka” and “Blue-Green” national programmes.