CIC Holdings, Agriculture Ministry and CIC Agri Businesses address food and nutrition security

CIC Holdings PLC, one of Sri Lanka’s dominant agri-business conglomerates will be sponsoring a conference on ‘Global Food and Nutrition Security; Challenges and Opportunities for Sri Lanka’ which will open on 17 October in Colombo; organised by CIC Agri Businesses and the Ministry of Agriculture.

The term ‘food security’ was first used at the World Food Conference of 1974 which was sanctioned by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. Since then, it has become a significant conceptual tool used to explain the causes of global hunger.

The conference is timely, as many countries worldwide tackle with the issue of food security in the backdrop of rising global food prices, diverse weather patterns and shrinking natural resources.

It is estimated that rising food prices have pushed 44 million people across the world into extreme poverty.  With world population tipped to cross nine billion by 2050, developing countries in particular face a daunting challenge of meeting its food needs.

Sri Lanka is acutely aware of this issue and policymakers have taken great pains to ensure the Indian Ocean island reaches a degree of self-sufficiency in food supplies. However, the road to self-sufficiency is not without its challenges. Each year, Sri Lanka imports some 200 billion rupees worth of food materials to feed its growing population.

The conference hopes to raise issues surrounding the present global food and nutrition security crisis; its implications for Sri Lanka; and potential local and global challenges.

The organisers also hope the event will identify short and medium-term challenges and opportunities for strategic actions.

The illustrious panel of local and foreign speakers will be led by Dr. Turhane M Doerga (President, Alesie Group of Companies USA); Sudharkar Tomar (Managing Director, Hakan Agro DMCC, Dubai); Dr. D B T Wijeratne (Additional Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture Sri Lanka); Professor Buddhi Marambe (Professor in Crop Science and Director Agri Education Unit, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Peradeniya) and Dr. Noble Jayasuriya (Chairman - Thematic Research Programme on Food Security National Science Foundation, Sri Lanka).

The joint organisers hope the eminent panel of speakers and participants will contribute to map out a future food and nutrition security plan for Sri Lanka that would complement Government’s efforts on the same.

Listed on the Colombo Stock Exchange, CIC Holdings PLC is one of Sri Lanka’s leading agriculture companies and has invested extensively into agriculture research, food technology and marketing to improve crop yields and the incomes of thousands of farmers.