Whetstone Audio Dispatch

Episode 2

Sri Lanka Protests Over Food Shortages

00:02 - Vidya

Vidya Balachander: Hello and welcome to Whetstone Audio Dispatch. A series of one-off podcasts about food as a lens to view the world. I am Vidya Balachander, the South Asia editor for Whetstone and the host of this episode. 

In these dispatches, you will hear us talking to journalists from around the world about how food intersects with politics, conflict, climate and more. The focus of the second episode is Sri Lanka. 

With the island nation facing the worst economic crisis in its history, a critical shortage of food has spurred people's protests across the country. To tell the story, I'm joined by Kris Thomas, a journalist based in Colombo, the country's capital. Kris spoke to several people to gain a deeper understanding of how this crisis came to be and how it cripples everyday life. Hi, Kris. Thank you for joining us on the second episode of Whetstone Audio Dispatch.

00:58 — Kris

Kris Thomas: Hi, Vidya. Thank you for having me.

01:00 — Vidya

VB: Could you offer our listeners an update on the very fluid situation in Sri Lanka right now?

01:05 — Kris

KT: Well, like you said, the economic crisis in the country has now brought citizens onto the road in anti-government protests all over the country. The protests are continuous and the demands are straightforward. They want a system change and they want their leaders to resign. 

Sri Lanka at the moment is broke. And what most Sri Lankans are doing is preparing for the worst. Earlier this year, we started running out of fuel and then it was cooking gas, all because the country's foreign reserves have all but depleted. Very soon, it will be food scarcity.

01:40 — Vidya

VB: So, even though the protests have sort of taken a life of their own and have become symbolic of a larger uprising against power, food is still very much at the heart of the crisis. Can you tell us a little bit more?

01:53 — Kris

KT: Yes, that is very much the case. Sri Lanka is recording one of the highest rates of inflation in the region. It's at an all-time high at the moment, and it has resulted in everything becoming expensive, from vegetables to fruits to rice to even something as meager as bread. 

I've met and spoken to families that have had to reduce expenses drastically, which means that they're eating less because they cannot afford to live like they used to. And the core of the problem is a very key policy decision to stop importing chemical fertilizer, and a national shift towards organic farming. This decision has resulted in one of the worst agricultural seasons in a very long time. The brunt of this damage has not spared anyone in this country.

02:46

Living in a country that is in crisis is an eerie state of affairs. But then again, in Sri Lanka, it feels like its citizens have been pushed from one crisis to another for almost four years now. 

Colombo, Sri Lanka's capital, is quick to plunge into darkness these days. Its regular city lights disappear into the darkness in daily power cuts that run over 10 hours per day. On one of the worst days it was 13 [hours.] At dawn and well into noon, people wait in line for fuel and domestic gas cylinders, commodities that have become scarce in the market. 

The crisis did not emerge overnight. It was gradual and its causes are many. But at the moment, it is the growing fear of a food shortage and the rising cost of living that has gripped the country's 22 million citizens in fear. The fear that saw months-long, silent protests turn violent overnight, where protesters were met with brutal force by the authorities for demanding the resignation of the country's ruling party and its once hero, now villain, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. 

In a widely circulated video from the 31st March citizens protest, a man addresses a sea of police officials and heavily armored riot cops. He has supporters around him but at a safe distance. The man asks the police officers to cease protecting the country's corrupt leaders and join them in demanding a better quality of life.

04:27

[audio from protest] “You're waiting and watching while one family is wasting away the wealth of 22 million citizens. That's not what's supposed to happen. We don't have to be afraid to speak up because we don't have a party. We are not divided. We are Sri Lankans: the Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim... Everyone out here in this moment as one people. If you have pledged to protect this country, why aren't you doing that? We are asking you to do that. I was just at home, but then I saw this and I came running because at least one person took the initiative. We too must follow it. Our banks are collapsing. Please understand this. The country has $13 billion in debt. But all the development they did by going into debt was a lie. Don't you understand that still? Who knows how much more we owe other countries? The only way these problems will be solved is when you stand with us.”

05:37 — Kris

KT: A photo of a mother, taken at the same protest on 31st March, showed her carrying a placard in one hand while the other cradled her sleeping baby. The baby, fast asleep, was covered in a blanket with tiny yellow ducks printed on it. The placard reads, "We have children too. They need to eat as well."

05:56 

[audio from protest] “We are poor people. It is not right to hurt us like this. We are suffering. My child asks for milk when she wakes up in the morning. But there is no milk powder to make her milk. The little one cries, but I cannot do anything. Why would they do this to people?”

06:17 — Kris

KT: Since the beginning of this year, mass protests have cropped up all over the island nation. Many of these are purely citizen-driven and not organized by political parties. 

The main demand has been the immediate resignation of President [Gotabaya] Rajapaksa and his brother, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa. They have been blamed for the economic mismanagement in the country. [audio from protest] 

A severe shortage of foreign currency has left Rajapaksa's government, often referred to as the Rajapaksa regime now, unable to pay for essential imports such as fuel. This has been the main cause of concern for the protesters. The lack of fuel has meant that the power plants in the country cannot operate as usual, leading to debilitating power cuts. 

The lack of fuel has also affected the transport system in the country. Farmers have been unable to transport their produce to the market. Hospitals have had difficulties treating patients during unscheduled power interruptions. There were instances where surgeries were conducted under torch light. Ordinary Sri Lankans are dealing with soaring inflation after the country devalued its currency, the rupee, against the U.S. dollar. 

The roots of the ongoing economic crisis in Sri Lanka are debatable. But to many, the trouble started with a key import restriction — a cutback on importing chemical fertilizers in an attempt to establish organic agricultural practices.

07:50

It all starts in 2019. Gotabaya Rajapaksa successfully contested on a pro-nationalistic, economic development and national security platform, and became the country's eighth president. One of the most significant economic policies in his manifesto was to promote the production of organic food free of agrochemicals and additives. 

He wanted to ban the importation of two key categories of agricultural inputs: synthetic fertilizer and pesticides. The policy was pushed into being in May 2021. On May 6, the government imposed the ban through Sri Lanka's Import and Export (Control) Act, successfully restricting the use of chemical, fertilizer, pesticides and weedicides that were used by farmers throughout the country.

08:36 — Pradeep

Pradeep (translated): I can't say it wasn't successful. And do you know the reason? Generally, after a field is sown, and 14 days after the plant sprouts from the ground, nitrogen has to be applied. 

We normally apply urea but the organic fertilizers we were supposed to get from the government were late by a month. So in the meantime we used homemade compost fertilizer, but in the end we realized it wasn't as good. And the other thing is that our land has now become used to chemical fertilizer. So it was not prepared for the organic fertilizer either. The land wasn't ready. I believe there is also bacterial activity that factors into this that probably didn't happen.

09:22 — Kris

KT: That was Pradeep, a part-time videographer and farmer. In 2021, he decided to start cultivating his ancestral lands in Mihintale in the North Central Province, the heart of the rice cultivation zone.

09:34 — Pradeep

P: The organic drive is good. I personally prefer it, but I clearly see that the government imposed this out of nowhere without any proper research. And remember I said that we didn't receive the necessary fertilizer in 14 days. 

There were many problems with that program. One thing we realized was that the government officials who are part of the organic drive in this district had zero enthusiasm for this. They barely did anything to promote it. They're political appointments. We can't expect anything much out of them. Even though the government adopted this policy, when it comes to the ground level, those policies are not implemented properly.

10:14 — Kris

KT: Pradeep is a firm believer in the organic drive. When I spoke to him, he recalled that before the government policy was enforced, farmers would have been able to harvest around 80 bushels of rice from an acre of land. If the season was kind to them, it would have been about 120 bushels. But after what happened in 2021, the number has reduced significantly.

10:36 — Pradeep

P: Last season’s harvest was very low, so I'm not even sure about the upcoming season either. And the next season has several problems too. It's the dry season, the plants don’t grow as richly as the previous season, and the land becomes very dry.

10:56 — Kris

KT: [According to Reuters], Sri Lanka has more than 2 million farmers and up to 70% of its 22 million people are directly or indirectly dependent on agriculture. The decision was opposed by the farmers. They said their crop yield would be affected by the sudden switch in fertilizers. 

Academics, scientists and social activists voiced serious concern as well. Many demanded that the government adopt a hybrid policy to allow the use of both organic and chemical fertilizers. And it was not just the rice cultivations that were affected. Almost all agriculture and livestock sectors were hit by the fertilizer ban.

11:34 — Jeevan 

Jeevan (translated): In my opinion, almost all of the country's problems right now begin with the fertilizer problem. If we didn't have fuel, we would have walked to the shop and bought our vegetables. We would have managed is what I'm saying. If the people managed to get their food on time and without a problem, they could have survived without suffering. Set aside the other problems, this decision was one of the moronic changes the government could have imposed. The way in which they introduced the organic drive was wrong.

12:04 — Kris

KT: Jeevan is 38 years old and he has been cultivating pineapples commercially ever since he left school at 19 [years old]. 

Before the ban, he managed to produce 7,500 kilograms of pineapple from an acre of land. By early 2022, it had reduced to around 3,500 to 4,000 kilograms. Because of the import problems, he said, the cost of production has increased significantly. Land preparation is expensive due to the fuel crisis, so they have had to diminish their margins heavily. 

And as a result of the agrochemical ban, the quality of his pineapples has dropped. They are smaller, not colorful and are not as sweet as before. In his district, except for those who cultivate and sell to commercial markets, many of the farmers grow pineapple in order to generate an additional income. He told me that at this rate, they are the ones who will give up their cultivations, and in the long run, there won't be a steady supply to meet the demands of the market.

13:06 — Jeevan 

J: What has happened is that we have stopped cultivation. Our harvest hasn't reduced, but the quality of our harvest has decreased a lot. The size of the pineapple has become smaller, but every plant yields a fruit. Even though that happens, the quality of the fruit is subpar. Because farmers are stopping their cultivations, there's a shortage of produce in the market. And the cultivations that continue have dropped their production by at least 50%.

13:35 — Kris

KT: It didn't take long for the effects of the ban to come to light. In October 2021, the ban, combined with bad weather, had led to falling crop yields and had contributed to 8.3% inflation and a food inflation of 11.7%. This was an all-time high for Sri Lanka, but it didn't stop there. 

The restrictions were finally lifted last November. This allowed the private sector to resume imports, but at a higher cost for the farmers. This time around, fertilizer would not be available at subsidized prices. Without any price control by the government, around 2 million farmers now have to purchase agrochemicals at a very high price. 

In order to better understand the long term effects of the fertilizer ban, I sat down with Nilushana Sooriyaarachchi, an agribusiness and value chain specialist. Nilushana has worked closely with private sector agribusiness entities and farmers organizations for almost 13 years now.

14:35 — Kris

KT: Is there a food shortage in the country?

14:39 — Nilushana

Nilushana Sooriyaarachchi: Definitely. Yes, of course we do have a food shortage. I mean, you know, the previous year, the government intervention, the organic drive. 

And afterwards, you look at now the ongoing season as well. So, we do have, you know, productivity-wise, the crop yields are below 30% at the moment now and even the government has promised to give them a compensation. I mean the farmers but we don’t know if it will materialize. 

And farmers, you know, they just do whatever they can and you know, they come up with the, you know, production, so it is quite less compared to the last year. And so it will reflect within a couple of months. Already you know we feel it, but we will feel it more within a couple of months definitely.

15:32 — Kris

KT: In 2020, despite it being the first year of the COVID-19 lockdown, Sri Lankan farmers managed to produce 5 billion metric tons of paddy. This was the highest in almost half a decade. 

But in 2021, the situation changed. Last year the government expected to produce 3 million metric tons from the last season of the year—but the actual yield numbers are not even close. The decision has seen Sri Lanka go from a self-sufficient rice cultivator to a predominantly rice-importing country. Four months into 2022, Sri Lanka has already begun importing rice from the likes of Myanmar, China and India.

16:13 —  Nilushana

NS: Feeding the population, you just can't do it with, you know, without fertilizer and agrochemicals because you need these in a hybrid variety. You need, you know, a good quality fertilizer, right? Good quality. 

I'm not saying dumping this, you know, we have very bad quality fertilizer in the country and, you know, trying to achieve stuff. But you should, you know, bring, you know, good hybrid fertilizer, like third, fourth generation good fertilizer. We need to bring those down. 

And, you know, even the price is higher if you use, you know, good quality imports, then you of course, get a good quality yield ultimately. With that yield, definitely we won't have to import stuff from, you know, other countries, especially rice. We won’t have to because, you know, we used to be self-sufficient. Before, you know, like 7 to 8 years. And now, we have a situation where we have to import rice. Because, you know, we tried to play this game and now we are struggling to feed the country. I feel yo[Inaudible] 

17:13 — Kris

KT: Sri Lanka's crisis is now being considered by many academics as a manmade disaster. Some have even said that the country is heading towards the most disastrous scenario that the agricultural sector has ever experienced since the country gained independence from its colonial rulers in 1948.

17:31 —  Nilushana

NS: Again, they struggle to harvest even now because they use this combine harvester, but they don’t have fuel. Again it's a problem — then they have to utilize the manual labor, then the cost is even higher. You know it is not easy to find people to, you know, do manual harvesting also now. So it's like, you know…  

17:51 — Kris 

KT: It's one problem after another.

17:54 — Nilushana

NS: A very precarious situation. Yes. And we will see now the expected yield. I'm not sure we will get the expected yield because we didn't have enough fertilizer during the onset of the season and also during the season. 

Now it’s the end of the season actually. So we will see soon. I mean the reduction of the yield and it will reflect in the prices again. Most of the commodities, because these are, you know, the primary commodities, I mean rice and milk.

18:20 — Kris

KT: Hope once sprung eternal in these lands, where anything, any plant would flourish and yield the best harvest. But now it feels like even hope has become a luxury that many Sri Lankan citizens cannot afford to have.

18:36 

[protest chants]

18:42 — Kris

KT: These are the cries of citizens who demanded the ousting of a corrupt regime of rulers who, according to the government, were part of an extremist group. In a way, they have all been pushed to their limits. They are all extremely tired of their government, extremely tired of their collapsing economy. And most of all extremely hungry.

19:11 

[protest chants]

19:22 — Vidya

Vidya Balachander: Kris, there's been a recent development as far as a chemical fertilizer ban is concerned. Could you offer our listeners an update?

19:30 — Kris

KT: So, a few weeks ago, the country's president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, reversed the controversial chemical fertilizer ban. In his address to the nation, he apologized to his people for imposing the organic drive. He apologized for the poor decisions that were taken. 

One example would be not seeking a bailout from the International Monetary Fund sooner. Right now, of course, the country is negotiating a bailout from the IMF while several other countries have offered more international support. But to many citizens, the apology and the reversal came too late. The damage is already done. Sri Lanka's food shortage is very imminent.

20:14 — Vidya

VB: Food and power have always been intimately interlinked. Throughout history, especially in the subcontinent, food has been a tool to wield political will on people. In Sri Lanka, the president's short-sighted decision to ban chemical fertilizers has worsened an economic crisis, which in turn has snowballed into shortages of the very basic essentials such as milk powder, rice, lentils, and spices. But as the ongoing people's protests have demonstrated, if power is a way to manipulate access to food, hunger is a catalyst that spurs people to speak truth to power. 

Even though the road out of this economic crisis is undoubtedly a long and hard one for Sri Lanka, the poignancy of this moment, with food as a fuel for a demand for political change, will continue to have resonance.

21:15 — Vidya

Thank you, listeners, for tuning into this story. We will be back soon with more Whetstone Audio Dispatch. In the meantime, you can subscribe to Whetstone Audio Dispatch wherever you get your podcasts. 

Thank you to journalist Kris Thomas for bringing us this story. I'd also like to thank Whetstone founder Stephen Satterfield, producer and Whetstone head of production Celine Glasier, sound engineer Max Kotelchuck, music composer Catherine Yang, production assistant Shab Ferdowsi and sound intern Simon Lavender. Cover art done by Whetstone art director Alex Bowman. You can learn more about this podcast on whetstoneradio.com, on Instagram and Twitter @whetstoneradio and subscribe to our YouTube channel, Whetstone Radio Collective, for more podcast and video content. To learn more about all the things happening at Whetstone visit whetstonemagazine.com.