Risk of food shortage due to sudden weather changes – Minister

Agriculture Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said that due to the impact of sudden weather changes in the country, there is a risk that our country will have to face a food shortage.

The Minister made this warning in a discussion regarding the implementation of projects to increase the production of food crops at the Ministry yesterday (4).

About 70,000 acres of paddy cultivation have been destroyed due to the severe drought in the past few days and hundreds of acres of paddy cultivation which were about to be harvested due to the torrential rains that are currently falling in several provinces have also been destroyed.

Also, the vegetable crops in the low country have been destroyed by the rain. Around 15,000 acres of green gram crops that were cultivated in Hambantota district have also been completely destroyed. About 40 percent of the country’s total green gram requirements could be obtained through this cultivation.

Emphasizing the possibility of a food shortage due to this, the Minister advised Agriculture Secretary Gunadasa Samarasinghe to immediately implement a plan for growing vegetables in the gardens and a food crop plan for this season. The Minister informed that a report regarding food crop damage due to weather changes should be provided immediately by the Department of Agriculture. The Minister informed that the food crop cultivation plan prepared accordingly should be jointly implemented by the Agriculture Department and the Agricultural Development Department and steps should be taken to get many other institutions to participate in this.

In this discussion, the Minister also mentioned that due to the Meteorological Department predicting that the current rainy weather condition and drought conditions may occur again in the next yala season, we should pay close attention to this. Officials from several institutions including the Livestock and Agriculture Department participated in this discussion.

The post Risk of food shortage due to sudden weather changes – Minister appeared first on DailyNews.