Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières
Gnanamuttu Kusumawathi, known as Kusuma akka, passed away five years ago. We remember her rebellious spirit and strength with admiration and gratitude. Kusuma akka was a leader in the Panama Pattuwa (Pattuwa refers to an identified area of land in Sinhala) land struggle from August 2010 until (...)
Red Cross’s 11-district survey reveals broad-ranging domino effects of the crisis on all social strata
A survey conducted across 11 districts of Sri Lanka has revealed that around 96% of people who were interviewed have been affected by the prevailing economic crisis in some material way, with (...)
The energy crisis has hit both the producers and consumers of fish with a monstrous force. Fishers are out of sea: no fishing, no fish and no income!! Fish prices have reached unbelievingly high levels, some exceeding even Rs. 3,000/kg mark. Many families have neither physical nor economic (...)
Shortages of required seeds and fertilisers are resulting in poor yields for vegetable and paddy farmers, despite steps being taken to assuage the crisis.
The lack of seeds and fertiliser risk negatively affecting future harvesting cycles and leading to long-term impacts for the country’s (...)
They set out daily and supply the Fish needed for daily consumption. Therefore the most impacted are the boat owners operating their vessels running on kerosene oil
Mirissa used to be a vibrant, bustling town on the Southern Coast with a reputation as a tourist hotspot. Its decline began with (...)
Northern Tamil fishermen seek meeting with TN CM M.K. Stalin to discuss a “permanent solution”
Just after Tamil Nadu’s annual fishing ban ended mid-June, Indian fishing trawlers are back near Sri Lanka’s northern coast, “crushing” fishermen’s livelihoods that are already under enormous strain during (...)
The present economic crisis, and the associated energy crisis, has mightily affected the fisheries sector, reducing the number of boats at sea, dwindling market supply, soaring fish prices, all affecting food and nutritional security of the people in Sri Lanka. Being a highly fuel-dependent (...)
Agriculture currently occupies around 40% of the land and consumes over 80% of the fresh water resources of the country. There are about two million farmers, who account for 25% of the workforce of the country; yet, they contribute only around 6% of the GDP, which shows the low productivity of (...)
The children are starving!
If remote Salalihini-gama close to Bogaswewa, about 22km from Vavuniya town, is a ‘microcosm’ reflecting Sri Lanka’s tragedy as it falls deeper into an economic morass exacerbated by a food and fuel crisis, it is obvious that the country’s children are starving. (...)
The “GotaGoGama” protest site in Kandy entered its 50th day yesterday (5), the “GotaGoGama” protest sites in Galle and Matara marked 50 days of protests last Saturday (4), and the Anuradhapura protest site marked its 50th day last Wednesday (1), while new “GotaGoGama” protest sites have emerged in (...)
Faced with shortages and power cuts, citizens have taken to the streets, primarily targeting the Rajapaksa clan
Paddy farmer S.D. Weerawansa has made a livelihood decision and a political pledge in recent weeks — he will not sow in the coming season, and he will never back a Rajapaksa again. (...)
The north and east are twice as affected by the ongoing economic crisis due to the impact of the war, but private citizens are making an effort to assist as much as they can, The Sunday Morning learns.
The 26 years of civil war ravaged the Northern and Eastern Provinces, with reconstruction (...)
Paddy farmers in poverty; next season maybe worse and many are switching to other crops
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) drew massive support from rural Sri Lanka at the last Presidential and general elections, with farmers making up the biggest voter (...)
“Whose expertise counts?” is the question that underruns current discourse on addressing Sri Lanka’s ever spiralling economic crisis. For much of the country’s intellectual establishment—its academics, policymakers, think tanks, civil society organisations and so on—the resounding answer to this (...)
Paddy farming may drop to 20% in upcoming Yala season Some farmers and growers plan to exit agro industry due to losses SL imports 1.2 million MT of chemical fertiliser annually 50 kg pack of urea now priced at Rs. 47,000-50,000
Uncertainty is looming over the country’s food security, with (...)
Labour Dept. slow to enforce law Enough penalties, bring errant planters to book: Thondaman
The Ceylon Workers’ Congress (CWC) is seeking legal advice to explore the possibility of taking legal action against the Labour Department for failing to enforce a gazette issued last year regarding the (...)
There had been a 30%- 50% drop in the country’s agricultural output, Chinthaka Rajapakshe, Convener of the Movement for Land and Agricultural Reform (MONLAR) told The Island yesterday.
“The farmers, like almost everyone else in this country, are uncertain of their future and they have only sold (...)
Harvests have collapsed, and the way President Rajapaksa introduced the policy angered even organic farmers
Driving through the verdant landscape of Rajanganaya, a rural district in north Sri Lanka where the hibiscus flowers pop out of rich green foliage and the mango trees are already (...)
People in Rideemaliyadda-Dehigama area in the Badulla District are deeply worried about the Government’s plans to allocate nearly 65,000 acres of land for sugarcane cultivation in that area. As part of the protest campaign organised against this action, a mass protest was organised in Bibila on (...)
A legal amendment that allows rural families to mortgage grant lands without State oversight will lead to mass-scale dispossession, with properties everywhere being seized by financial institutions when their impoverished owners are unable to pay their dues, community organisations have (...)
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