Is organic farming to blame for Sri Lanka’s crisis? (Atlanta Business Journal)
- From
-
Published on
23.12.22
- Impact Area
The political right and others are seizing on the country’s banning of chemical fertilizers as the proximate culprit that led to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa turning over his palace to protesters last week, writes the Atlanta Business Journal in an article on the food security crisis in Sri Lanka. The journal disagrees with where the blame lies. The problem is more complicated. While Rajapaksa’s abrupt ban on chemical fertilizers did jolt farmers, yields didn’t fall so precipitously that it would have dented exports that much, says David Laborde, a senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute.
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.
Related news
-
CGIAR Accredited to UNEA: Bringing Food, Land, and Water Systems into Global Environmental Policy dialogues
Multifunctional Landscapes Science Program09.07.25-
Biodiversity
-
Climate adaptation & mitigation
-
Environmental health
-
Food security
CGIAR, the world’s largest agricultural research partnership, has been officially accredited as an…
Read more -
-
ICRISAT to Deliver World-Class Services as CGIAR’s Breeding Resources South Asia Hub
International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT)07.07.25-
Biodiversity
-
Food security
Strategic collaboration to scale innovation and deliver harmonized, high-quality support across CGIA…
Read more -
-
Sudan’s prolonged conflict could slash GDP by over 40% and push millions deeper into poverty, new IFPRI study warns
International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)30.06.25-
Food security
Press Release - June 30, 2025 A new study by researchers at the International Food Policy Research…
Read more -