More than one million Sri Lankan farmers face the risk of abandoning vegetable cultivation due to soaring input costs and increasing imports, Nimal Hewawitharana, Chairman of the National Vegetable Growers’ Association has warned.
Hewawitharana told The Island that not only vegetable farming but also the cultivation of other key food crops such as onions, cowpea, and green gram was under threat. He said global prices of fuel, fertilisers, agrochemicals, and seeds had fallen, but the local prices of those essential inputs had surged to unaffordable levels, forcing many cultivators to quit farming.
The growing importation of vegetables and supplementary food crops had also depressed prices of domestic produce, denying farmers fair returns and further discouraging cultivation, Hewawitharana said.
“A sharp rise in petroleum and diesel prices has inflated costs related to water supply and mechanised farming,” Hewawitharana said, adding that skyrocketing prices of fertilisers, agrochemicals, and seeds were making farming unsustainable for many. He warned that if the trend continued, it would not only jeopardise local food production but also worsen the country’s foreign exchange reserves due to increased reliance on imports.
Hewawitharana said the government should listen to farmers’ calls for support and fair pricing had become urgent to prevent a mass exodus from agriculture and secure the nation’s food security.
By Nimal Gunathilaka 