Sri Lanka Farmers Organizations’ Response to COVID-19

Sri Lanka reported its first case of COVID-19 on 27 January 2020. Since then, the government gradually announced measures to contain the virus. The government announced a complete lockdown of the country starting 18 March and a nationwide curfew was imposed.

During the lockdown, the farmers were highly affected as they were unable to sell their products. To solve this problem, they were urged to bring their harvest to dedicated economic centers in the regions, but this initiative failed as wholesalers did not appear because there are no markets that are open for retail. Many farmers abandoned their crops without harvesting them because harvesting is also costly. Tons of perishable food all over the country have gone to waste. As a result, consumers were faced with lack of food supply and soaring prices.

Moreover, farmers faced another problem of not being able to feed themselves and their families due to loss of income. They also cannot pay back their credits and there was no way for them to start the next cultivation as they have no capital to invest.

“I have ample harvest from chili cultivation, but there is no one to buy them so I have no reason to harvest them. I’m afraid how I am going to survive with my family and start the next cultivation season without money and with due loan installments,” says Ramyalatha, a farmer from Rikillagaskada.

The government initiated a program to procure and distribute farm products directly through Farmer Services Centres. However, this failed due to poor coordination and weak implementation of government market chains with added reasons such as unavailability of storage and logistic facilities in rural areas.

Sri Lanka is highly dependent on food imports. According to the Export Development Board, in 2018, the total agriculture, food, and beverage imports of Sri Lanka were at USD 1.6 billion. The country will most probably face a food shortage/food insecurity in post-COVID as almost all the food-exporting countries to Sri Lanka has stopped or banned all their food exports due to the impacts of COVID-19 in their own countries. The economic recession which is starting to be felt in many countries will hit Sri Lanka and it will lead to skyrocketing prices of food and other commodities. This will affect the health, nutritional and poverty standards of the people, with more adverse effects on the poor and vulnerable groups in the country.

In addition, there is a growing issue of shortage of agricultural inputs including seeds and fertilizer faced by farmers all over the island. In some areas, farmers are queuing for fertilizers but return home empty-handed as the supply has been curtailed. The seed supply of most of the vegetable crops was also affected due to issues in imports. Sri Lanka imports potato, red and big onions, and vegetables (particularly upcountry vegetables) seeds from the US, India, Netherlands, Thailand, Pakistan, Germany, and Japan.

Agricultural laborers will also face a high rate of unemployment because of the loss of livelihood due to the halting of agricultural exports, mainly in the export agricultural sector.

Plantation workers in the hill country are in a worse fate being daily wage earners. All tea plucking activities have been stopped by the estate companies, therefore, more than 500,000 workers and around 1.5 million members of their families are without the income to ensure their daily and essential needs. 

The agricultural sector and food security in Sri Lanka will run into a deep crisis if effective strategies are not put to place with a holistic approach steered towards ensuring the self-sufficiency of food.

Further, laborers from other sectors such as garment industries, tourism, casual laborers, and even self-employed people are suffering equally due to loss of income, as a result of the inability to engage in their economic activities.

Lanka Farmers’ Forum provides emergency support for vulnerable members affected by COVID-19

It is in this situation that the Movement for Land and Agricultural Reform (MONLAR), the national implementing agency of APFP in Sri Lanka, together with the Lanka Farmers’ Forum (LFF), acted to support affected communities.

Despite its limited resources, MONLAR provided emergency support for the carefully selected most vulnerable families of the LFF platform and from other communities with a special emphasis on the plantation communities. The criteria for the selection were (1) families that are not eligible and did not receive government support programs, (2) farmers and plantation workers, (3) war-affected communities, (4) women-headed families, (5) families with disabled members, and (6) displaced families due to various infrastructure projects. Essential food packs were distributed to 1,109 families and 206 plantation families in eight (8) provinces.

#	Province	Female	Male	Total
1.	Uva	81	19	100
2.	North Western	115	43	158
3.	Southern	80	33	113
4.	Northern	106	29	135
5.	Sabaragamuwa	121	42	163
6.	Central	98	35	133
7.	North Central	80	52	132
8.	Eastern	125	50	175
	Sub-Total	806	303	1109
	Plantation Sector
1.	Barandawaththa	08	07	15
2.	Loolkandure	20	10	30
3.	Badulla	10	15	25
4.	Rathnapura	07	13	20
5.	Deniyaya	14	06	20
6.	Matale	19	06	25
7.	Nuwaraeliya	36	15	51
8.	Panwilla	09	11	20
	Sub-Total	123	83	206
	Total	929	386	1315

Furthermore, some district farmer forums of LFF intervened in providing agriculture extension services during the lockdown as all government sector institutions were closed and farmers were helpless without proper advisory services on fertilizer and pest management. The LLF Anuradhapura district forum president and the farmer leasers provided required awareness on ecological methods of cultivation and pest management where required.     

LFF also tried to intervene in finding alternative marketing methods in order to support the producers to sell their products at the local level. However, the bureaucratic administration system did not allow them to obtain the required passes to do aggregation and mobile marketing. Thus, they were forced to adopt barter systems or sharing their produce with neighbors. 

Meanwhile, MONLAR has been able to gather financial support from partners in order to support the members of LFF to revitalize their agriculture in the post-COVID-19 situation. Together with all these support, MONLAR plans to initiate COVID-19 awareness-building programs for farmers with the assistance of medical professionals. LFF will also distribute face masks to their farmer members. #