Saturday Feb 01, 2025
Saturday Feb 01, 2025
Friday, 31 January 2025 03:13 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By Amira Cader
‘Lesser-known foods of Sri Lanka’ a campaign by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), together with the Environment Ministry was launched recently to introduce nutritious underutilised traditional crops in to daily diets.
Supported by the Early Action Support (EAS) project funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) which holds a critical role in accelerating Sri Lanka’s implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework by effective biodiversity conservation into national polices and strategies.
Sri Lanka has over 700 varieties of underutilised food plants, nutritious and affordable but most are not even on our radar so our plan is to plant them, eat them and in return conserve them for a healthy future sustainability and save Sri Lanka’s biodiversity but utilisation and importance of these crops have rapidly declined over time. Underutilised plants in general have genetic tolerance to climate shocks and possess many nutritional and therapeutic qualities.
These crops can help contribute to the food security, nutrition, health and income generation of people.
UNDP Deputy Resident Representative Malin Herwig commenting on the launch said, “Through campaigns like this we hope to raise awareness about underutilised crops with high nutritional value as many communities are struggling to day with rising living costs and food insecurity, these crops are easy to grow and are affordable and can reduce dependence on expensive food.”
WFP Sri Lanka Country Director Gerard Rebello said, “In this campaign, we aim to show that the journey to good health begins with the food on our plate and encourage making these foods a part of daily diets as we plan to introduce 3,000 meals a day thought seven districts in rural schools with the assistance of the UNDP, WFP and GEF. These kinds of projects require sustainability and we urge the Sri Lankan Government and private sector to support this initiative immensely.”
A recipe book with this, “Home-Grown Flavour” was also launched by the UNDP Deputy Representative Malin Herwig along with representatives of the Environment Ministry. The recipe book will be distributed among caterers, providing them with the tools, knowledge, and support to self-produce food for the national school meal program.
Commenting on this campaign, Environment Ministry - Biodiversity Division Director Chandani Wilson expressed that Sri Lanka is blessed with biodiversity-rich crops. She stated that this initiative will bring prosperity and goodwill to farmers, as only 30% of these crops are currently protected. Through this campaign, we also aim to tackle the main challenges of biodiversity loss and improve access to nutritious food for vulnerable communities across the island. The two main concerns in Sri Lanka are the rapid decline of Sri Lanka’s biodiversity and the multiple threats it faces and the access to nutritious foods among vulnerable communities. By promoting underutilised food crops, the campaign aims to create commercial value for these nutrient-dense food plants and thereby create the incentive for their cultivation and ultimately their preservation. These crops can be easily be grown in a home garden or adapted to commercial cultivation – both options would in turn provide affordable and cost-effective sources of nutrition across the urban and rural population of Sri Lanka.
The month-long campaign, commencing on 21 January, will include many engaging activities such as a cooking competition, sampling stations in Colombo, outreach initiatives, and will also engage with urban and rural communities, students, home gardeners, well-known food personalities, and partners from the tourism sector.
