Food insecurity improves in Sri Lanka – FAO and WFP
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Handing over the survey report.
Food security in Sri Lanka is improving across all provinces, according to the Crop and Food Security Assessment Mission (CFSAM) report jointly carried out in February/March 2023 by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP).
The report estimates 3.9 million people or 17 per cent of the population is in moderate acute food insecurity which is nearly a 40 per cent decrease from June/July last year. Nearly 10,000 people are severely acute food-insecure, down from 66,000 people last year, FAO and WFP said in a joint media release.
The improvement in food security stems from better food consumption, which could be attributed to reduced food prices and improved incomes among farming communities during the harvesting period.
Despite this positive trend, food insecurity remains high in certain districts, especially Kilinochchi, Nuwara Eliya, Mannar, Batticaloa, Vavuniya, and Jaffna. The highest level of acute food insecurity was found within the tea plantation communities in the estate sector and among daily wage labourers and households who rely on social assistance programmes, such as Samurdhi, as their main source of income.
Production of cereal, including rice and maize, across the two main cropping seasons in 2022/23 is forecast at 4.1 million tonnes, 14 per cent below the past five-year average, mainly due to poor plant nutrition caused by an inadequate supply of fertiliser and unaffordability of essential material inputs. However, essential fertilisers distributed to smallholder farmers by the Government, facilitated by funds received from multilateral and bilateral donor agencies, has significantly impacted production, marking an improvement in the yield with productivity in the recently harvested 2022/23 “Maha” season, 12 per cent higher than the 2022 “Yala” season.
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