Sri Lanka It's Happening

May 28, 2004

The Sri Lankan government (which has not passed any bills since coming to power on April 02) is now faced with a catch 22 situation thanks to the price of rice.

Two of the UPFA's pre election promises (they made many, some of them contradicting each other) was to bring down the cost of living and to give a better deal for farmers.

Rice is Sri Lanka's staple diet. Some people eat rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner (of course, it's with a different combination of curries at each meal). Rice is what's grown on a large percentage of Sri Lankan agricultural lands (rice farmers thankfully do not encroach on the forests like other farmers do).

Now the problem, rice prices have sky rocketed over the last two months leading to a higher cost of leaving. Farmers on the other hand pampered by outragous subsidies don't care two hoots about the cost of production (why should they? they are assured of a minimum buying price).

The solution to the high cost of living? import rice. The cose of imported rice + shipping + handling + insurance is far less than the cost of the locally grown variety. (Thai farmers only use as much pesticides as they have to, Sri Lankan farmers use as much pesticides as adviced by the agro chemical companies)

So if the government imports rice the farmers lose out. These left wing parties such as the UPFA have a ready made solution for that problem, increase subsidies or buy at a high cost from the farmers and sell at a lower price in the stores. All that's very well if there was money in the treasury but unplanned, unwanted election and associated handouts have resulted in an empty piggy bank.

Posted by raditha at May 28, 2004 4:07 AM