One family’s famine: Sri Lanka’s organic farming disaster
How one family's miscalculations have led to chaos and uncertainty throughout Sri Lanka, a warning sign for the rest of the world.
On July 9, roughly 300,000 frustrated citizens stormed the president of Sri Lanka’s compound, forcing President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee to Singapore with his family out of fear for their lives. Inside the compound, protestors ate his food, drank his wine and sang revolutionary songs while partying in his private pool, rejoicing in celebration amid the country's economic free fall.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has taken on the role of interim president and will serve while Parliament considers a new leader. Although changes in leadership are underway, the country’s future remains uncertain.
Parliament Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana promised to “create a peaceful atmosphere in order to implement the proper parliamentary democratic process and enable all members of Parliament to participate in the meetings and function freely and conscientiously,” promising a swift and transparent political process estimated to take another week.
The cause of the ongoing chaos is a direct result of the Rajapaksa’s leadership, Sri Lanka’s ruling family. But how did a country of roughly 22 million – one that just two years ago had a booming economy surpassing the GDP of Indonesia, the Philippines and Ukraine – turn into uncontrollable chaos, corruption and destruction, nearly overnight? The answer is complicated, but lies somewhere between a failed trust in political families, and fertilizer.
Sri Lanka is roughly $51 billion U.S. dollars in debt, with inflation up 133% in March. Compare that to the 9.1% inflation reported by the U.S. in June that has all of us complaining about the increased price of gas, rising cost of food, and inability to afford a home.
The deficit forced all gas stations in Sri Lanka to close on June 29, with the country announcing they had only enough fuel for one more day. It forced schools to cancel exams due to a shortage of printing paper. It resulted in a triple price hike for cooking gas, resulting in miles-long lines of thousands in Colombo and other areas, along with a famine that’s still spreading throughout the nation.
“Without gas [or] kerosene, we can’t do anything. What last option? Without food, we are going to die. That will happen [one] hundred percent,” part-time driver Mohammad Shazly told Food.News in May of 2022.
It all begins, and hopefully ends, with the Rajapaksa family.
The Rajapaksas first rose to power in Sri Lanka in 1936, when Don Mathew Rajapaksa was elected to represent the Hambantota district in the State Council. The family was previously rural landholders and transitioned into the rice and coconut farming industry. Their popularity rose significantly in 1983, following the civil war between Parliament and the rebel group the Tamil Tigers, a battle that concluded in 2009, when Mahinda Rajapaksa won the election again to become president, while four other members of the Rajapaksa family won their respective seats.
Founded by Velupillai Prabhakaran, the Tamil Tigers, later the LTTE, fought to create an independent Tamil state called Tamil Eelam in the north-east of the island. But what started as a liberation movement transitioned into a nationalistic power partaking in guerrilla warfare and suicide martyrdom, with the FBI stating to Time Magazine in 2019 that the group “perfected” the use of suicide bombing, crediting them with inventing the suicide belt, and pioneering the use of women and children in suicide attacks.
Goyabaya Rajapaksa is credited with having ruthlessly crushed the Tamil Tigers, bringing an end to the long-running civil war and resulting in a reported popularity among a majority of voters in Sri Lanka.
The end of the war led to a brief period of stability and eventually growth, with the external debt tripling between 2006 and 2012. The growth raised 1.6 million people out of poverty, but increased the public debt to 119% GDP.
As the Rajapaksa family watched the GDP debt rise, residents started to reap the benefits of the borrowed wealth.
China helped build a new airport and seaport in Hambantota. Tourism came back in astonishing numbers. A massive growth was experienced in 2014 and 2015, with the country estimating roughly 1.8 million annual tourists, a majority of which came from both Russia and Ukraine.
But as the debt grew, tourism shrank, and the airport was abandoned while the seaport stood empty, becoming deserted monuments to increased government superfluity.
In a move to potentially increase the country’s reputation and cut down on importing costs — whether out of altruism or profit — President Gotabaya Rajapaksa vowed to make Sri Lanka the first country to fully adopt organic farming, banning the import of chemical fertilizer from across the world in April of 2021.
The New York Times reported the agrochemical ban was poised to save Sri Lanka roughly $400 million in annual spending on synthetic fertilizer, which was to be put towards increasing the importing of other goods. But Rajapaksa also argued the chemical fertilizers and pesticides were leading to “adverse health and environmental impacts.”
While the effort was ambitious, it did not fix the economic crisis, only exacerbated it, becoming the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Within a year, farmers began to struggle to produce enough crops, outsourcing nearly all their food and produce which continued to expand the debt of the country. Importing more than they were exporting, the ban caused rice production to drop 20% in the first six months after its implementation. While the country planned to save $400 million from the decision, it ended up expanding the importing of rice, resulting in an overall cost of $450 million.
Tea, Sri Lanka’s biggest export crop, decreased by 18% as a result of the decision.
In an unfortunate turn of events, the war in Ukraine broke out shortly after, nearly wiping out Sri Lanka’s tourism industry. Add to that the increase in oil and gas prices as well as the excessive cost of shipping.
To combat the economic hardships, Sri Lanka agreed in May of 2022 to start printing money to cover state salaries, depreciating the value of the rupee. The decision finally pushed the crisis into unimaginable peril, resulting in the country’s agreement to stop printing money when inflation nears 60%.
With money losing value and minimal supplies available, the situation culminated when protestors took to the streets, taking over government buildings and the homes of politicians, setting them on fire and robbing them of food and other supplies available.
As the president fled, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe has stepped up and will appoint a new president who will severe out the remainder of Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s term, set to end in 2024.
During a speech as rioters began to leave the government buildings and return home, Parliament made one message repeatedly clear.
“There is a big difference between protesters and insurgents,” said Parliament’s Secretary General, Dhammika Dasanayake. “We will take legal action against insurgents.”
But the real question is whether the protesters are the only insurgents, or if the Rajapaksa family, who took Sri Lanka hostage and squeezed its economy as hard as it could, should be held to the same standard.
Sri Lanka is a beautiful island nation known for its rich biodiversity, its natural wonders including the Sigiriya Fortress and Yala National Park, and in a turn of events, other nations have stepped in to offer support for the struggling country.
India has agreed to a $1 billion credit line for importing food and medicine, the World Bank has offered $600 million, and the country is asking for another $4 billion from the International Monetary Fund, or IMF. The country is also reaching out for additional support from the U.S., Japan, China, India, Qatar and Australia, some of which the country is already severely indebted.
In July of 2022, the Sri Lanka Guardian reported roughly 81% of the country’s foreign debt was owned by U.S. and European financial institutions, as well as Western allies Japan and India.
A majority of Sri Lankan government debt is in the form of International Sovereign Bonds (IBS), the highest being from BlackRock (US), Ashmore Group (Britain), Allianz (Germany), and JPMorgan Chase (US).
As for China, Sri Lanka is indebted a reported $6.5 billion. As a result, China has agreed to boost its foreign currency reserves if Sri Lanka is willing to swap its currency from the Sri Lankan Rupee for the Chinese Yuan Renminbi, a decision that has yet to be made.
As the tides turn for the county, the next few months will determine what the future holds for Sri Lanka, the Pearl of the Indian Ocean.