Food Petition

Food Petition

Campaign for Peoples Solutions to Food Crisis (CPSF)

1. Type of agriculture where small scale farmers play a lead role is the only effective way to solve the food crisis. It should be environmentally friendly (ecological) and should be a way of rebuilding the capacity of nature to regenerate itself. Resources spent on fertilizer subsidies and other chemical inputs should be given directly to farmers engaged in such ecological agriculture.

2. Ministries of Agriculture and Agrarian Services and the Departments should be reoriented towards promoting such an approach in agriculture and food production. Programmes for rural poverty alleviation such as Api Wawamu, Rata Nagamu, Gama Neguma, Gemi Diriya and Samurdhi Movement should be changed into programmes geared towards such agriculture.

3. Land rights and ownership of land, necessary for food production by farmers engaged in such natural farming should be ensured in a manner that would not compel or encourage them to sell their land away, under adverse circumstances.

4. It should be government policy to protect and propagate indigenous, domestic seeds with capacity for repeated planting (regeneration). The commercial propagation of seeds that are useful only for one generation should be prevented.

5. Priority should be given to production of food for the people of the country over commercial export oriented agriculture in allocation of land and resources.

6. The domination of companies and private businesses over agriculture and marketing of food should be abolished.

7. The government should intervene in strengthening small farmers and small scale fisher people and in giving them reasonable prices for their produce.

8. The use of illegal fishing gear should be stopped. Expansion of tourism zones and large scale industrial fishing that destroys the livelihoods of small scale fishers should be prevented. Resources that are presently being used for such purposes should be utilized for conservation of aquatic resources and for sustainable development of inland and coastal fisher people. The right of such fisher people to have access to the sea and inland fishing areas and to sell their produce must be ensured.

9. The war contributes to massive destruction of life and economy. Declaration of large areas of land and the sea as high security zones in the war affected areas has become a serious obstacle to the lives of people lining in these areas. Since marketing facilities in these areas are lacking people face serious difficulties in their livelihoods and in food. These have to be remedied through negotiated settlements to the conflict.

10. People in the plantations should be provided land in order to meet their food and nutritional needs satisfactorily and for them to have lives as dignified citizens of the country. Salaries of plantation workers as well as of all other workers should be increased in relation to the increase in cost of living.

11. Considering the great contribution that women could make towards a healthy society with sufficient food availability and life of satisfaction they must be provided space and opportunity for equal participation in the development process including planning. Using women merely as cheap, subservient labour as house maids in the Middle East and in garment factories should be rejected.

12. The working class and the urban middle class have found it extremely difficult to face the current economic crisis. Immediate measures should be taken to meet their needs.

13. Agriculture, which rebuilds the regenerative capacity of nature, has a tremendous potential to provide respected livelihoods and a life of satisfaction to large numbers of youth who are now compelled to unemployment and urban migration. They must be provided with necessary understanding, education and facilities for this purpose.

14. The massive loans taken to build express highways, international airports and harbors and other infrastructure development projects to make the country attractive to foreign investment have contributed tremendously to indebtedness of the country. This should be stopped. Development should be primarily based on peoples strength and should be people friendly.

15. Government should intervene in ensuring that the poor people have healthy food in sufficient quantities at affordable prices.



Finally, the solution to food crisis is in preventing the destruction of lives of the majority poor people in the country through war, and by building a broad Peoples Action that ensures their full participation, full contribution of their knowledge and labour in a manner that ensures direct ownership and control of agricultural land, water, seeds, and other requirements in the process of production, such as equipment and knowledge. Such a Peoples Action should also mobilize people to pressurize the government to bring about a restructuring of government institutions, introduce policies and allocate resources for such a process.