Sri Lanka: Hunger haunts the nation’s rice bowl

By Romayne Anthony | CARE International
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Two and a half months ago KD Majjid was a man whose ultimate dream was about to be realized after 10 long painful years. Separated from his wife, Majjid was forced to leave his job as a watchman in a nearby mill in order to take care of his elderly mother. Paddy farming was always a livelihood Majjid was eager to delve into but had never had the resources to initiate on his own. A majority of paddy farmers in Ampara are land owners and are treated as the richer members of their community. Majjid’s opportunity to join this league came when he was identified as a beneficiary for a livelihood project initiated by CARE Sri Lanka for vulnerable families in the Akkaraipattu area.

In a region where farmers own hundreds to thousands of acres paddy land Majjid carefully chose two acres to cultivate his precious crop. “I have been trying to have my own paddy field for 10 years - since 2000- finally in 2010 CARE helped me to make my dream come true so I worked hard at it and then the flood came.” The anxious wait to reap his first harvest turned into an anguished walk through dead or dying sheaves of paddy left in the wake of the floods which covered most parts of Ampara in January.

“We have to reap the harvest twice a year - we started cultivating two months ago and this month we were to harvest it - I was expecting 50,000 rupees from this harvest as profit! But today I can’t even cover the cost of the day labourers who would have reaped the harvest - They won't come to cut this kind of paddy.”

“The paddy seed opens up and when it starts raining it closes up - and when it rains the seed sticks to the one next to it and the rice inside it doesn’t grow. Nothing can be salvaged - Water just turns the whole thing black.”

Holding the blackened paddy in his hands Majjid rubs them together and watches the empty paddy crackle and fall from his hands with a look of despair and disappointment only matched by the dark cloud that now hangs over his immediate plight.

“I have no other means of earning money so I might do some labour work until then - I can’t even eat this paddy - so I have no means of eating or income.”
He may have lost his first ever harvest but Majjid is determined to stay with his dream. He will start the next season in April and reap the harvest in August he insists “I don't have money to clear the land so I’m just going to leave it like this - The cows and wild animals will eat up the crop and I will restart planting. This is the only thing I can do and I’m not going to give it up.”

In response to the floods, CARE has provided food and emergency supplies for nearly 16,000 people in Batticaloa, Ampara and Polonnaruwa Districts, and is working to supply water and water purification tablets to help families have access to safe drinking water. CARE, which has worked in Sri Lanka since 1950, is coordinating closely with the United Nations, other aid agencies and government agencies as part of the relief effort. CARE is appealing for additional funds as we work to scale up our relief response.
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