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by Tharuka Dissanayake

Eat more rice- urged the government and the media. Rice is our staple and there is excess production, so please, eat more meals of rice and sustain our culture and our agriculture...

To a population weaned on refined white bread, this mantra was almost Dutch at first. Bread made of imported, refined white flour has become the staple of this country - so much so that the powerful bread even won elections.

Of course, nowadays it is difficult to imagine a time when bread was a mere Rs. 3.50. Government policy encouraged bread-eating habits. But now, we are told that rice is our staple - long after the populace replaced it with the convenience of baked, under-weight often low-quality bread of dubious nutrition. We have to get back to rice...and yet, the price of rice does not reflect the so-called bounty harvest.

Rice self-sufficiency was an obsession with our post-independence governments. While growing enough rice was a positive national priority, it is difficult to understand the duplicity of policy, which later allowed cheap wheat flour (which first arrived as free food aid) to become the key segment of local diet. Alarmingly, despite achieving rice self-sufficiency on a national level, and while looking at a future of excessive production and the possibility of exports, Sri Lanka as a country still faces a problem with malnutrition.

Malnutrition is a serious problem among pregnant women and small children of certain geographical areas in the country, but levels of malnutrition exist all over the country - from the slums of the city to the war-affected refugee camps of the North.

It may amaze many of us to know that nearly 20% of Sri Lankan children begin life with a handicap- low birth weight (below 2.5 kg). 35% of children below five years are underweight and there is considerable degree of stunting (height for age) and wasting (weight for height) among Sri Lankan children and these problems link directly to lack of correct nutrition both in quality and quantity during the crucial years early childhood.

This proves, sufficiently, that achieving national food security through rice cultivation has not really improved the lot of Sri Lankans. There is no attempt here to downplay the importance of rice as the national staple. Certainly, the excessive consumption of bread may well be one of the reasons for the lack of adequate nutrition.

But simply boosting the statistics of rice yields will not make a better fed, more energetic population. There are other considerations - chiefly the ability at household level to buy, store and consume the right kind of food.

An Indian expatriate friend once expressed outrage at the prices of fruits and vegetables in this country. "How can people afford it,?" she mused. "It would be cheaper to import from India or Pakistan."

Not a good idea, but true, unfortunately. Fruits and vegetables grown in this country are far too expensive for the population to afford them. Transport and spoilage are known to be the main causes of the exorbitant prices we pay to have our leeks and brinjals - but production costs are also heavy. The Sri Lankan 'goviya' uses too many chemicals to grow his small plot. The result is high cost, pesticide-fungicide laced vegetables, which are transported unnecessarily long distances to reach markets and in the rush become spoilt and rotten.

Over several generations, Sri Lankans have gradually lost the ability to grow a few simple edible vegetables/leaves at home. Maybe it is due to resettlement, migration, gradual urbanization, owning smaller and smaller plots of land etc, but to see a home vegetable garden today is as rare as finding the proverbial green Mango tree in Colombo.

We have today a population that has become used to buying everything from the bunch of Karapincha to Gotukola to Batu and Bandakka from the shop. This is not simply an urban/ suburban problem. A study done by the University of Peradeniya in settled farmer villages in Randenigala area found that they rarely grow food trees that can supplement the household diet.

The farmers cultivate a cash crop, sell its harvest and buy their food requirements, even when they have time, space and the know-how to cultivate some food for their own consumption.

My mother-in-law would certainly disapprove. Her vegetable garden in the heart of Kollupitiya provides the household with chemical-free, fresh produce and rarely does she shop for vegetables and leaves.

Eating rice is fine and should well be encouraged. But rice alone will not allay the evils of malnutrition that affects so many of our children. Policy makers must note that food availability and nutrition do not necessarily follow each other.

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