- UN FAO-WFP assessment report on SL notes increased tendency to borrow food and rely on help from friends and relatives to cope with food insecurity
In Sri Lanka, about one in every five households has been reducing the number of meals consumed in a day and about one-third have been limiting portion sizes. Overall, the level of food-based coping strategies reduced slightly between May of last year (2022) and March of this year (2023), except for borrowing food or relying on help from friends and relatives, a strategy that is employed by a similar percentage of households compared to last year. Households in the estate sector were among the most likely to report the regular use of food-based coping strategies.
This situation concerning food security in Sri Lanka was explained through the findings of a survey conducted early this year, which was discussed in a report titled “Special Report: Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO)/World Food Programme (WFP) Crop and Food Security Assessment Mission (CFSAM) to the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka”. Taking into account acute food and nutrition security-related issues throughout the island, it explained numerous steps that need to be taken to improve the agriculture sector and food security situation.
Household food and nutrition security
The report extensively described the state of the food security situation in the country, adding that the overall acute food insecurity at the beginning of 2023 had improved materially, which, in part, could be the result of a seasonal effect of the harvest period and the better affordability of specific nutrient-rich food groups. Still, it noted, food consumption continues well below the pre-crisis period, and more households are compromising their future resilience and productivity by adopting livelihood-based coping strategies. Pockets of acute food insecurity remain, particularly among the chronically vulnerable populations (those living in the estate sector and those dependent on the informal sector for income), as per the report.
Adding that in order to estimate the number, location, and characteristics of acutely food insecure households, a household food security survey of 15,035 households was conducted between 20 February and 21 March 2023, the report claimed that based on the survey, 3.9 million people (17%) were estimated to be moderately acute food insecure, including about 10,000 people assessed to be severely acute food insecure. The highest levels of acute food insecurity had been reported in the estate sector (42%), while acute food insecurity was also high in the Eastern (23%) and Northern (28%) provinces.
As per the report, household characteristics such as gender and the education level of the heads of households are important determinants of food insecurity: “Female-headed households had higher food insecurity rates (23%) compared to male-headed households (16%). During the assessment, the Mission conducted multiple focus group discussions with female-headed households, based on which this disparity may be attributed to lower income levels, the lack of employment opportunities, and the burden of caring for dependents. Women were often paid low wages compared to men and therefore, faced problems with regular access to adequate and diverse food. They spent a considerable amount of time caring for children, which limited their ability to work and earn a stable income.
“The education level of the household head was another important characteristic that determined the food security outcome of households. The highest rates of food insecurity were among households where the head of the household had no education (34%). In contrast, households where the head of the household had completed secondary school education or higher had significantly lower rates of food insecurity (11.8%). The education level of the head of the household is significantly lower in female-headed households in the estate sector as well as among households relying on assistance, followed by those depending on unskilled labour and agriculture.”
Rates of food insecurity also varied significantly among different income groups, according to the report, which further described that the biggest proportion of food insecure households was found among those who mainly relied on social protection programmes such as Samurdhi and disability benefits (43%), followed by households with unskilled and casual agriculture labour (31.6%), aid and gifts (30.6%) and the production and sale of fish (29.8%) as income sources.
“Discussions with households that relied on wage labour showed that the seasonal nature of their employment and fluctuating wages led to inconsistent access to food. They reported that although their wage rates had increased, they were working fewer days and hence, saw no appreciable increase in income. In contrast, those who produced and sold staple crops had easier access to food during the survey period due to the recent harvest resulting in increased consumption levels.”
The way forward
The report presented a number of steps to overcome the prevailing concerning situation relating to the status of agriculture and food security in the country. The steps with regard to the agriculture sector included one urgent measure to support the paddy sector and one measure to address issues related to long-term soil fertility and crop productivity. Moreover, two additional recommendations aim to address immediate and medium-term constraints in the livestock and fishery sectors.
Regarding the provision of fertiliser, the report said that past years’ experiences show that sudden policy changes could result in further declines in paddy production and negative impacts on household food security and that therefore, if the Government intends to cease the fertiliser subsidy system, the Mission recommends its implementation over a transition period of at least three years (2023–2026). The report recommended that from the 2023-2024 Maha season onward, Sri Lanka transfer the responsibility of paddy fertiliser imports and distribution to the private sector, guided by a newly established “fertiliser task force” under the President’s office, which guarantees policy directions with clear, formal communication to both farmers and input from importers and distributors, to scale up the nationwide electronic fertiliser voucher support mechanism targeted to paddy smallholder farmers and to retain the crop insurance scheme as the primary agricultural risk transfer mechanism during the transition period, with a gradual shift towards a weather index-based insurance scheme, particularly for the dry zone, instead of blanket schemes for the entire country.
Initiating applied research to explore, adapt, and expand climate-smart agriculture practices and technologies for sustainable crop intensification is another recommended measure, regarding which the report read that given the country’s historical dependence on fertiliser subsidies, there is a need to catch up on implementing sustainable farming methods, and that certain high potential for climate-smart agriculture practices have already been identified. Among the specific steps in that regard are paying attention to paddy crop rotation, promoting conservation agriculture, improving compost production by offering guidance and financial incentives for farmers to produce their own compost, and enhancing the efficient use of chemical fertilisers by expanding soil testing capabilities.
It added: “Facilitate the transfer of value addition along the supply chain to paddy smallholder farmers. During the crisis, paddy farmers seem to be losing influence in the value chain, while downstream actors are capturing a greater share of the value addition. Scale up the negotiable warehouse receipt system. Expand the negotiable warehouse receipt system to counter seasonal paddy price fluctuations exploited by intermediaries. This system, promoted by the Regional Development Banks, allows farmers to store their produce securely and use the receipts as collateral for bank loans, enabling them to sell their harvest later at higher prices. To amplify this approach, consider using the Government’s existing food storage capacity of 350,000 tonnes across 20 districts.”
Providing support to the livestock and fishery actors to access production inputs until inflation is stabilised and to protect access to grazing and fishing resources were the other recommended measures.
With regard to food security, the report said: “The Mission concluded that 3.9 million people are acutely food insecure and that pockets of severe vulnerability remain, including some 10,000 households that are severely acute food insecure and in need of immediate food assistance. The current level of acute food insecurity represents an improvement compared to that of Ma, 2022, although households’ resilience and future productivity continue to deteriorate as more households adopt livelihood coping strategies. Gains in food security at the household level could be related to the seasonality of the production and harvest period, translating the same into better food availability and affordability as well as seasonal access to income by farmers and related livelihoods. Improvements in the food security of farmers have not been similarly registered by other population groups. Additionally, while income from the harvest was starting to become available at the time of the survey, farmers were in general reporting a lower income in comparison to past agricultural seasons. The impact of the income could therefore be more limited in time.”
Continuing to provide assistance in the form of food and cash transfers to population groups in significantly difficult food security conditions compared to other groups is one recommended measure, concerning which the report said that these efforts should include households whose main source of income depends on national social protection schemes, unskilled daily wages, including agricultural wage labour and estate sector households working on tea plantations. The selection criteria should also prioritise female-headed households and households with low education attainment, it was further recommended.
Among the other recommendations aimed at addressing the food security issue included increasing livelihood support aimed at building resilience to various shocks for households engaged in irregular income sources with a special focus on fishery as they are shown to have elevated levels of food insecurity; providing integrated interventions with a food system approach directed to increase the affordability of adequate and nutritious diets and improve food consumption which remains well below the pre-crisis situation; and designing and implementing stronger integration and promotion of nutrition-sensitive approaches in addressing acute food insecurity and supporting the transition to sustainable recovery.
The report further added: “Given the volatility of the macroeconomic situation and high levels of inflation, a close monitoring of the markets and the food security situation is required. The setup of a regular monitoring system would provide updates on the current situation with the identification of high food insecure clusters and the early warning signs of deterioration. In this regard, strengthening the capacity of the Department of Census and Statistics in setting up a food security surveillance system and supporting the Ministry of Agriculture with the digitalisation of its price data collection system through technical and financial assistance are strongly recommended.”