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President Ranil Wickremesinghe emphasised that military, economic and food are all components of a country’s security, whilst assuring to step in at any time to address these problems.
The President made these observations during a progress review meeting of the National Food Security and Nutrition Assurance Program held at the Presidential Secretariat on Tuesday.
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He called on officials to take urgent measures to ensure an uninterrupted supply of fuel, food, and medicine.
President Wickremesinghe said he is prepared to step in at any time to address these problems if the State mechanism fails to implement the food security and nutrition assurance program.
He also highlighted the need to modernise agriculture and enact legislation on food security via this initiative.
The multi-sectoral joint mechanism to empower rural economic revitalisation centres to ensure food security and nutrition was recently implemented countrywide titled ‘Leave No One Behind’, welfare Benefit Fast Track Program on the directives of President Wickremesinghe.
The progress of the initiative at the district level was examined during this discussion and it was stated that Rural Economic Revitalisation Committees have been established at the village level in all districts and programs have been implemented to ensure food security and nutrition.
Discussions also focused on the issues that could arise during the cultivation process in the relevant districts, while special attention was placed on the supply of fertiliser, land issues, unavailability of seeds and crop damage caused by wild animals.
President Wickremesinghe said that measures have been taken to solve these problems in consultation with the relevant institutions and instructed the authorities to expedite the process of resolving the issues that further remain to be resolved.
Having paid attention to the progress presented by the District Secretaries about the implementation of the program in each district, President Wickremesinghe directed the officials to identify the crop cultivations done at the rural level separately, to identify the regions suffering from food shortages and submit a report on the matter immediately.
Based on the information, the President also called on the officials to implement a food bank and community kitchen programs to cover every district under the leadership of the Divisional Secretariats.
He also instructed the relevant departments to continue the program until 2023 with the collaboration of all the Government officials, armed forces, civil defence force, Government, and non-governmental organisations – to ensure the nutritional needs of the people and to prepare for the looming global recession.
President Wickremesinghe said a report on the progress of the program should be sent to the Cabinet Office every week.
Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena pointed out the need to speed up the provision of land for new cultivators and follow a formal system for it.
He also noted that the upcoming rainy season is conducive to cultivation and highlighted the importance of educating the people at the rural level on engaging in agricultural activities without delay.
Cabinet and State Ministers, Senior Advisor to the President on National Security and Chief Staff of the President Sagala Ratnayake, Secretary to the President Saman Ekanayake, Senior Advisor to the President on Food Safety Dr. Suren Batagoda and Government officials including Secretaries of the line Ministries and District Secretaries participated in this discussion.
