Nearly 10 per cent of Sri Lanka’s population faced food shortages before COVID-19 pandemic: Report

Sri Lanka is currently going through its worst economic crisis since gaining its independence in 1948 but according to a new report, things were not looking good since 2019. The data, released by Sri Lanka’s central statistical agency on Monday, stated that almost 10 per cent of the country’s population were struggling with food supply before the COVID-19 pandemic started. The report also shows that things got worse as the economy started suffering with the ban on chemical fertilisers.

“By the end of 2019, as much as 9.1 per cent of the Sri Lankan population was at the risk of not having access to basic food items, out of which 0.9 per cent or nearly 200,000 people were on the brink of facing starvation,” the Department of Census and Statistics said in their report.

The report shows that the share of food insecurity moved up from 9.1 per cent to 9.45 per cent due to the pandemic – meaning one in every 10 families getting affected by it, according to PTI.

The food insecurity and economic crisis created uproar among the Sri Lankan population and things got worse in 2021 when President Gotabaya Rajapaksa banned the use of chemical fertilisers.

The economic crisis resulted in the public losing trust in the Rajapaksa family and Ranil Wickremesinghe was appointed the new prime minister earlier this year. The PTI reported claimed the situation has not improved and that nearly 4.9 million in Sri Lanka – almost 25 per cent of the entire population - are currently in need of food assistance.

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(With inputs from agencies)