16 types of food identified as essential food items

The Committee on Public Accounts (COPA) recommended that all Ministries should unite and set up a Cabinet Sub-Committee on Food Security to address the food crisis in the country.

The members of the committee pointed out that it is important to set up this committee to bring all the agencies responsible for tackling the current food crisis together, to take quick decisions, to follow up on the actions to be taken and to discuss future actions. The Chairman of the COPA Committee elaborated on the unaffordable increase in the prices of essential food items due to the Government’s deregulation of food prices in the country.

The Auditor General pointed out that food production has been severely hampered by climate change, the war in Russia and Ukraine, the crisis in world wheat, maize and fertilizer production and rising oil prices. According to data from the Sri Lanka Customs and Hector Kobbekaduwa Agrarian Research and Training Institute, the Ministry of Commerce has identified sixteen types of food as essential food items.

The officials briefed on the quantity of essential food items produced in the country during the Yala and Maha seasons this year and the quantity of food required to meet the demand of the country. The Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture pointed out that the committee set up under the new government under the chairmanship of Nimal Siripala de Silva will be met at the Prime Minister’s Office.