Our Planet, Our Health
Today is World Health Day World Health Day, a global health awareness day, was declared to mark the anniversary of the founding of World Health Organisation (WHO) on April 7, 1948. World…
Farming & Agriculture
Averting the Looming Food Crisis
A food crisis is inevitable. Food prices are soaring; shortages in essential food items are creating long queues, affecting people’s ability to work and get on with productive lives; the foreign reserve…
Saving Sri Lanka’s Paddy Farmers
Much of the country is gripped by drought because the past month was exceptionally dry following the very wet conditions previously. The hydroelectric reservoirs have little water and the government is importing…
Cutting Heavy Wastage to Reduce Food Shortage
A new year usually brings hope and optimism but when we welcomed 2022, another worrisome issue had surfaced – the imminent threat of a food shortage. When the sudden fertilizer policy changes…
How Sri Lanka Became a Nation of Beggars
Every economy in the world, developed or developing, is a topic for discussion today. Some economies are being discussed for their sound management, good governance, high growth and overcoming crises while other…
Making Cash from Trash
The organic fertilizer ship from China was one of the hotly debated topics in Sri Lanka. The quality of the fertilizer shipment, which resulted heated exchanges between the stakeholders, almost sparked a…
Farmers Bear the Deadly Cost of Going Instantly Organic
The biggest gamble of a lifetime is being played out in the fields of Sri Lanka by over a million people today. Paddy sowing for the rain fed Maha season is almost…
Smashing Fertilizer Myths
About a decade ago, a statement by a medical doctor in the United States made overnight headlines. He was a popular television personality too. When he learned about the presence of arsenic…
Going Organic in a Planned, Sustainable Way
The new fertilizer policy introduced by the government has attracted heavy criticism from all sections of society; it has also received attention from the intellectual community. There is a good response from…
The Organic Fiasco: A Farmer’s View
These are my views about the ban on chemical fertilizers and pesticides, which now appears to have been overturned in a haphazard manner. The ban is being applied to different sections of…
A Tragedy of Errors – Heading for a Food Crisis
A food shortage brewing for several weeks, coupled with a stagnant economy and indecision, has pushed Sri Lanka to the brink of a crippling crisis. It is ironic that Sri Lanka, which…
Realistic or just Rhetoric? The Ban on Chemical Fertilizer
In early 2021, a survey conducted by the International Food Policy Research Institute, found that farmers faced food insecurity as a result of the measures that had been put into place to…
Lost and Confused – An Economic Policy in Shambles
At the time of gaining independence 74 years ago, Sri Lanka was a prosperous country that was recognised as a model economy with a per capita income of $120, on par with…
Short Sighted Agricultural Policies Spell Doom for Farmers and the Country
The decision to ban chemical fertilizer is one of the crucial policy changes taken by the current government since coming to power. It received mix reactions from the public. The government’s argument…
Ban on Chemical Fertilizer a Threat to Food Security
The ban on the import of chemical fertilizer makes sense to some and not to others; however it has far reaching implications for food security. In the pre independence era, the population…