Agriculture Minister Mahinda Amaraweera yesterday directed Ministry Secretary Gunadasa Samarasinghe, to immediately suspend the use of rice stocks for the production of animal feed and beer.
The Minister did this to preserve the current rice stocks to avert a possible food shortage in the future, due to the prevalent, severe drought condition.
The Minister also directed officials to inform the Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry and the Presidential Food Safety Committee of this decision. Cultivated paddy lands in several districts have been destroyed due to drought. The farmers are also facing the problem of not having sufficient water to grow crops.
At present, over 50,000 acres of paddy under the Udawalawe Reservoir, are at risk of being destroyed due to lack of water. At least two more shifts of water should be given to these paddy fields.
In the Anuradhapura district too, there is an acute shortage of water for the paddy fields. The Agriculture Minister said that, if there is no significant rainfall in the next few days, there is a danger of a rice shortage in the foreseeable future, due to the failure of the expected rice harvest in the Yala season.
Source – Daily News
