Sri Lanka was historically recognized and respected as the Rice Bowl of Asia. In fact paddy production and agriculture not only provided the nourishment for a healthy nation and thus a wealthy nation, they even formed a part of our culture and civilization.
The National New Year is linked to the paddy harvest and we often quote the well-known author who knighted the farmer by saying that when the mud was washed off his back he is fit to be a king. Most of that appears to have gone with the wind and wholesale commitment to the largely negative concepts of the market economy have plunged thus into a crisis where we sowed with the wind and are now reaping the whirlwind as symbolized by the current rice crisis.
It was in the aftermath or warnings of possible famine or food riots that President Mahinda Rajapaksa himself went to Rome last week to address the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization summit on the world food crisis.
After three days of ploughing and contentious debate in the mud holes of market politics, the Rome summit came out with a declaration or possible solutions. But most experts saw the summit as a gathering which promised much but produced little.
Then in Geneva the UN expert on the right to food expressed regret that the issue of "power imbalances" between large corporations and farmers was not addressed during the Rome food crisis summit.
Olivier De Schutter, the UN's Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, highlighted the failure of the summit to place greater emphasis on the issue of speculation in the commodities markets.
Summing up his thoughts on the summit, Mr. De Schutter told a media briefing he "regrets" in particular that the issue of power imbalance in the food production and distribution chains was neglected.
Smallhold farmers, he said, face "large corporations who have a very concentrated market power both at the ends of the chain and middle of the chain".