Spiraling Food Crisis Hits Sri Lanka as Farmers Abandon Fields
An economic meltdown, the most dire since the nation achieved independence from the British in 1948, has taken a severe toll on the agriculture sector.
A farmer rests during the seedling planting in a paddy field in Bandaragama, Sri Lanka, earlier this month.
Photographer: Buddhika Weerasinghe/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
For R. Daranagama, a 70-year-old rice farmer, the past year ranks among the most difficult of his life.
As Sri Lanka battles its worst economic crisis in decades, Daranagama has barely touched his four-acre field this season. Without access to fertilizer, he and other farmers expect crop yields to slump, threatening food supplies across a nation already pushed to the brink.