A bitter harvest in rice-eating Sri Lanka

TO SAY rice is Sri Lanka's staple food is an understatement. Rice is politics in Sri Lanka. Not only that, we are also in love with rice. Take my case. My day is not complete if I do not eat rice for my lunch. There are times I eat rice for all three main meals. Take a ride on a taxi along Colombo's busy roads during lunchtime.



One would be sure to see hundreds of vendors sitting under huge umbrellas and selling parcels of cooked rice. The price was reasonable — at least till the beginning of the year. But then there was a sudden increase in the price of rice — and everyone is talking about it.

One woman said the kilo of local rice which she bought at Rs 80 last month was being sold at Rs 112. The imported Indian rice, which two months ago fetched, a price of Rs 60 a kilo in Colombo's retail markets is now sold at Rs 100 — and the stocks are fast vanishing.

My grocer predicts that the prices will go up further in the coming weeks. But our government says it will not allow the situation to get out of hand. It was only a few months ago that the government asked the people to eat more rice when flour prices went up. But today, rice is beyond the common man's reach.

In the early 1990s, Sri Lanka achieved self-sufficiency in rice for the first time in several centuries. Where did we go wrong?

In the recent past, a coterie of big-time rice mill owners with political backing was blamed for hoarding and artificially jacking up the prices. But this time, it was the weather.

The rain came down heavily in March — a usually a dry month during which the rice farmer would collect his harvest. The unusual weather pattern was blamed on factors related to global warming. Tens of thousands of paddy land went under water with thousands of farmers becoming destitute overnight, unable to reap the harvest.

The rains not only washed away all the hopes of the farmer but also put a damper to the New Year, which has its origin in the harvesting festival.

A desperate government pleaded with India, Pakistan and Myanmar to sell some rice. We are told that India, which has banned rice, exports to avoid a food crisis in that country, has agreed to sell 100,000 tonnes of rice to Sri Lanka. But other reports say we have just got a promise from India. The promise was more than enough for the government to feed us — not rice but hopes and propaganda.

The World Food Programme in a recent report listed Sri Lanka among eleven countries identified as "hunger's global hotspots". The other countries on the list are Afghanistan, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Iraq, Syria, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Zimbabwe.

Experts attribute the global rice in food prices to several factors, including prolonged droughts or floods in food-exporting countries, the diversion of crops to make bio-fuel, the rise in transport costs as a result of increased oil prices and restrictions on export of food by countries such as India.

Is the Sri Lankan government prepared to face the upcoming crisis? It is no simple matter, for rice has been the core of Sri Lanka's politics since we gained independence in 1948. Rice politics has accounted for the rise and fall of many governments. Independent Sri Lanka's first major social upheaval was over rice. The world rice prices had skyrocketed because of the Korean War.

The then United National Party government found it difficult to maintain the subsidy on rice. It increased the price of a measure of rice from 25 cents to 70 cents. The Left parties led by the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP) organised a day of civil disobedience or strike on August 12, 1953. The response was overwhelming. The government panicked and deployed the army to crush the agitation. Scores of people died and hundreds were arrested. But at the general election held three years later, the UNP suffered a humiliating defeat.

The fall of the Sirimavo Bandaranaike government in 1977 was also attributed to rice politics. She came to power, promising that she would give every Sri Lankan two measures of rice free. When the opposition queried as to how she would find the rice, she said her party would bring it even from the moon. Obviously, she could not fulfil her promise and she lost the general election in 1977.

Will Sri Lanka witness food riots in the coming weeks or months? The main opposition United National Party recently organised demonstrations against the rising food prices but not many people joined the protests. The reason: The people still believe that the government is winning the war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and once the LTTE is defeated, there will be economic boom. But it is only a matter of time before the people question the government's promises of better times ahead. The signs are already visible.

Last week, a newspaper carried a story saying rice was available at Rs 60. The following day, a group of housewives held a protest outside a newspaper office demanding to know where they could find rice at Rs 60.

(Khaleejtimes)