Sri Lanka crisis and the impact on Agroecology debates - Lessons to be learnt

7 October 2022. 12 PM UTC Sri Lanka crisis and the impact on Agroecology debates - Lessons to be learnt

The Sri Lanka crisis has made movements and activists discuss and reflect on the best ways to transition to agroecology.

After the economic crisis in Sri Lanka this year and the preceding ban on chemical fertilisers, the debate around agro-ecology has come to the fore once again. The Sri Lanka crisis has made movements and activists discuss and reflect on the best ways to transition to agroecology. There have also been observations from some countries on how the crisis and the links with the fertiliser ban is being used by agro-businesses to create an adverse discourse around agro-ecology, possibly weakening the agro-ecology movement.

The Food and Nutrition thematic group of People’s Health Movement consulted with colleagues from PHM Sri Lanka who agreed on the need to ‘clear the air’ in terms of the exact turn of events in the country, on what led to the national crisis and in what way (if any) is it linked to the fertiliser ban. This is an important opportunity for PHM as well as movements working on agroecology and food security to learn from friends in Sri Lanka and listen to voices from different countries on how the debate around organics and agroecology is being played out in their respective countries after the Sri Lanka crisis. In this context we are organising a webinar discussion with the following objectives-

• To understand from friends from Sri Lanka as to what happened during the Sri Lankan crisis and in what ways (if any) it links with the fertilizer ban in the country
• Sharing from friends in different countries (Argentina, Bangladesh, India) on the impact of the Sri Lankan crisis on the debates on agroecology in their respective countries.
• To promote dialogue and learn from Sri Lanka in order to better create roadmaps for the transition to ecologically sustainable agriculture.

Speakers:

• Moderator: Dr. Vandana Prasad (PHM India/JSA and Public Health Resource Network)
• Dr. Lionel Weerakoon- Independent Activist, Sri Lanka
• Marcos Ezequiel Filardi (lawyer), Member of the Network of Free Chairs on Food Sovereignty (Red Calisas), Argentina
• Farida Akhter, Unnayan Bikalper Nitinirdharoni Gobeshona (UBINIG), the Policy Research for Development Alternatives, Bangladesh
• Dr. Ramanjaneyulu (Ramoo), Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, India

Related Resource

Is organic farming to blame for Sri Lanka’s crisis? (Politico) 

JULY 19, 2022

Politico published an article that looks at organic farming as a possible culprit for the dramatic implosion of Sri Lanka's economy.  While Rajapaksa's abrupt ban on chemical fertilizers did jolt farmers, senior research fellow David Laborde says yields didn't fall so precipitously that it would have dented exports that much. The bigger issue is that COVID-19 sent droves of overseas workers home to Sri Lanka. Money sent home by Sri Lankans working abroad normally totals about $6 billion per year, well above the $1.2 billion that comes from tea, the country's largest cash crop. "The remittances shock is several orders of magnitude bigger than the worst scenario we can imagine about tea," Laborde said. Without the remittances and tourism dollars, Sri Lanka had to spend more of its own currency on imports and interest on debt, which combined with inflation sent it into the spiral that led to its economic collapse.  

"The thing that is pretty evident is that there was macroeconomic mismanagement in Sri Lanka for months, if not years. They didn't want to spend their foreign currency on fertilizer," he said. "That was already a kind of reverse causality." Laborde ended by saying, "We should not draw any generalities or conclusions out of the Sri Lanka situation, except that bad macroeconomic policy can destroy your country and destroy your farm system. That's the only lesson I really want to draw about Sri Lanka."