Drought is a recurring and increasingly severe natural hazard in Sri Lanka, significantly affecting agricultural productivity and rural livelihoods and eventually affecting national food security. Climate change and shifting rainfall patterns have further intensified the drought and flood conditions in the country and are altering the seasonal cultivation patterns gradually. Addressing these concerns requires a re-evaluation of existing policies, stronger institutional coordination, enhanced resilience strategies, and sustainable financing for effective drought management.
The stakeholder dialogue on Drought Management and Impacts on Community Food Security in Sri Lanka was organised with the objective of providing opportunity for concerned parties including the public and private sector, research community, non-profits and donors to engage in an open and constructive discussion on multifaceted challenges of national drought management. The dialogue consisted of a keynote speech, three technical presentations and a panel discussion which provided a clear picture to the participants the institutional and policy gaps in drought management in Sri Lanka, its effects on agriculture and food security and potential innovative financing mechanisms to promote sustainable drought risk management.
The welcome and opening remarks were conducted by Mr Nalin Munasinghe, Assistant Representative, FAO and Ms Kusum Athukorala Chairperson (Acting), Sri Lanka Water Partnership (SLWP) respectively. Mr Munasinghe explained that the dialogue was part of a broader FAO initiative aimed at fostering public–private collaboration in food systems, with this session dedicated to the pressing issue of drought. Ms Athukorala in her remarks reminded the participants that smallholder farmers are the most affected by drought and partnering with them in designing and implementing solutions is the key to success. She described how the SLWP involves bridge the gap between research and communities through knowledge products, training and networking. She asked the participants to recognise farming communities as co-creators of resilience but not passive aid recipients in projects on drought management here onwards.
Dr Thushara Wickramaarachchi, Director General, Department of Agriculture, Sri Lanka conducted the Keynote Speech while three another well-known Sri Lankan scientists steered three technical presentations on policy and institutional coordination gaps on drought management, effects of drought on Sri Lankan agriculture, and strengthening food security through innovative financing for drought management in Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka is among the top ten most climate-vulnerable countries
Dr Wickramaarachchi explained the interconnections between climate change, drought, and food security and stressed that Sri Lanka remains among the top ten most climate-vulnerable nations. Nearly 70 percent of Sri Lanka’s agricultural lands are in the dry zone where majority of the farmers face recurring water stress while deforestation, declining soil fertility, and erratic rainfall have exacerbated the problem. He explained that the traditional food and water management systems such as the tank cascade system and mixed cropping approaches are some of the key practices that provided resilience to drought. Dr Wickramaarachchi called for strengthened local food systems through home and school gardening, community storage and individual (crop based) storage systems. Further emphasised on the expansion of climate-smart agriculture (CSA), which integrates adaptation, mitigation, and productivity goals. He concluded the speech by stressing the urgency of stronger community participation, local innovation and institutional support emphasising the need for robust national food security policies and policies that ensure sustainable agriculture.
Technical presentations:
Presentation on Policy and Institutional Coordination Gaps was conducted by Prof Nimal Gunawardena. He explained that the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is the only legally binding framework to address drought. Sri Lanka has ratified the convention in 1998 and presented the National Drought Plan in 2020 aligned with UNCCD’s Strategic Framework 2018-2030 at COP 14 held in New Delhi, India. The Framework laid out 16 recommendations on legislation, coordination, gender, and disaster risk reduction. Despite progress made at the policy level, implementation remains weak due to fragmentation of managing drought across 22 institutions with overlapping mandates. As a possible solution, Prof Gunawardena suggested to implement the proposed Technical Working Group on Integrated Drought Management for a unified effort.
Presentation on Current Drought Conditions in Sri Lanka was delivered by Dr B. R.V. Punyawardane, Former Director, Natural Resources Management Centre, Department of Agriculture.He provided a scientific overview of droughts in Sri Lanka and introduced six types of droughts including meteorological, hydrological, agricultural, socio-economic, ecological, and absolute drought. Dr Punyawardane reviewed two historical droughts happened in 1973 and 2023 as examples for severe droughts in Sri Lanka which were coursed by failed monsoons and the El Nino conditions. The disruption course was devastating, there were crop failures which led to food crisis, forage loss and hydropower disruptions and power cuts. The indirect effects of these droughts include reduced inputs for downstream industries in the food process chain (eg. maize belt where the processed maize is being used as poultry feed), rise in egg and poultry prices, reduce demand for agriculture inputs (agro-chemicals, labour and logistics services) and addition of extra cost for supplementary irrigation and pest control. If the vicious cycle continued it could lead to farmer unemployment, indebtedness, malnutrition, migration and even increased suicide cases.
He warned that the uncertainty in rainfall towards 2050 during the Yala Season would be higher whereas there would be below normal rainfall during the Maha Season. This uncertainty could cause severe implications for the country’s food production. With the given backdrop, Dr Punywardane insisted to the Department of Meteorology and other line agencies use the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), short- and medium-term rainfall forecasts, and ENSO/IOD monitoring as essential tools to foresee droughts and for early warning. He concluded that reliance on reactive relief must give way to proactive resilience measures, including water-efficient farming, crop diversification, and drought-resistant crop varieties.
The third technical presentation was on Strengthening Food Security through Innovative Drought Financing Mechanisms was delivered by Dr Menuka Udugama, Senior Lecturer, Faculty ofAgriculture and Plantation Management from the University of Wayamba. She argued that while Sri Lanka invests heavily in post-disaster relief, there is chronic underfunding for preventive and resilience-building measures.
She presented several innovative financial models, including:
- Index-based crop insurance schemes linked to rainfall thresholds.
- Blended finance models, combining government funds, donor support, and private investment.
- Community-based savings and credit schemes/sustainability loans, which empower households to withstand shocks.
- A proposed National Drought Fund, designed for rapid and transparent disbursement.
She stressed that financing must be equitable and accessible, particularly for smallholder farmers, women, and marginalised groups. Without reliable financial safety nets, she warned, even the best technical innovations will fail to safeguard food security.
Panel discussion
The technical presentations set the background for panel discussion which was moderated by Prof M. I. M. Mowjood, Senior Professor, Department of Agriculture Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Peradeniya. The panel consisted of five sector experts including the presenters. Ms Athukorala and the FAO Representative who were at the panel supplemented their real-life examples with the technical aspects brought by the intellects to the roundtable.
Moreover, the discussion allowed the participants to share their experiences and views on the topics discussed and ask questions from the experts. The officials representing the Asian Development Bank (ADB), GWP SAS, Seylan Bank PLC, Mahaweli Authority and World Bank presented their views at this limited time given for discussion.
The four-hour-long intensive discussion ended with the closing remarks made by FAO. The representative thanked the participants who attended the dialogue representing almost fifty different institutions for their active engagement. The meeting concluded with a shared commitment to continue the collaborative efforts among stakeholders to ensure food security in Sri Lanka.
Take Home Message
The discussion highlighted several critical lessons for improving drought management and ensure food security in Sri Lanka:
- Integrated Planning and Early Engagement: Effective interventions require collaborative planning from the outset, rather than introducing stakeholders only at validation stages. Early integration fosters joint thinking, reduces perceptions of threat, and builds partnerships across institutions.
- Stakeholder Coordination and Political Engagement: Bottlenecks in coordination and data sharing persist due to institutional silos. Including political stakeholders in forums is essential to facilitate decision-making and overcome bureaucratic obstacles.
- Data Gaps and Monitoring: Robust, shared data on drought, floods, and affected populations are lacking, limiting early warning systems, anticipatory actions, and risk financing mechanisms. National policy should catalyze systematic data collection and sharing across sectors.
- Assessment of Hazards and Food Security: Droughts are identified as causing more widespread damage to food security, particularly in dry and intermediate zones, highlighting the need for comprehensive, evidence-based assessments.
- Capacity Building and Trust: Community empowerment must be preceded by trust-building and engagement processes that understand local livelihoods, social dynamics, and perceptions. One-off training is insufficient.
- Leveraging Existing Knowledge and Resources: Sri Lanka possesses strong scientific knowledge, policies, institutional frameworks, and financial tools. Effective implementation requires coordinated action to translate these resources into practical, on-the-ground solutions.