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The trio of festivals- the Sinhala and Tamil New Year, Ramadan and Easter Sunday fall within a short time of each other. The deadly Easter Sunday massacre of innocent civilians in churches and hotels in 2019hit one of our biggest exchange earners badly.

The Easter Sunday bombing also marked the beginning of a dark era that saw the crumbling of our country’s economy which had just begun to take off .

Tourism is one of the largest foreign exchange earners in the country. With the election of Gotabaya Rajapakse in November 2019, bad administrative decisions taken in , such as the sudden ban on the use of agrochemicals with no fallback plan, led to the decimation of local agricultural production. It nearly ruined the plantation economy top as it depended on the use of agrochemicals. 

The drop in earnings meant insufficient income to meet import of essential such as fuel and gas and basic food needs such as rice – the country’s staple food, veggies and medicines. The loss of foreign currency made it difficult to repay international creditors. 

World Bank statics shows nearly 14% of our food is dependent on imports. We also rely on imports for about 85% of our pharmaceutical needs and about 80% medical supplies. With foreign currency sources drying up, in April 2022 the country was forced to declare bankruptcy. Resultantly no countries /financial institutions were ready to offer credit facilities to purchase fuel and gas-essential for power generation. It led to 12-hour power cuts, non availability of fuel for transport as well as other basic food and medical requirements. In turn, shortages led protests, the president fleeing the country and the then Acting President Wickramesinghe being elected president by parliament. But the financial position of a majority of the people has worsened. 

Government statistics show at national level, the percentage of underweight children under five years increased to 15.3 per cent in 2022. The FAO/WFP Crop and Food Security Assessment Mission in May 2023 revealed that 3.9 million people were moderately food insecure with over 10,000 households facing severe food insecurity. 

Trading Economics points out  the cost of imports in Sri Lanka increased to 1,380 USD Million in February from 970.70 USD  Million in January 2024. Meanwhile export earnings in February 2024 amounted USD 983.7 million. In other words,  we are still spending more than we earn!

Can our agriculture community not be supported by the government by paying them a reasonable price for their crops? We leave purchasing to middlemen who exploit farmers, enrich themselves and hoard supplies to raise local market prices.

This space is insufficient to cover the gamut of products including the manufacture of medicines that can be produced locally thereby bringing down import requirements. It takes political will to reach this goal.