A major food flow mapping exercise in Sri Lanka has concluded that rural-urban connectivity should be strengthened to maintain food flows across the country, and transportation, suitable storage, and processing capacity of key commodities must be shored up to reduce disruption at times of shocks and stress.

The study was carried out under the auspices of the Colombo City Region Food System project but covered all of the country’s nine provinces. The researchers, led by Professor Buddhi Marambe of the University of Peradeniya, focused on seven key commodities: rice, maize, beans, bananas, potatoes, marine fish, and chicken meat. Details on the study methodology are available here.

The findings are contained in an extensive database that is now held by the Natural Resource Management Center (NRMC) of the Department of Agriculture, Sri Lanka, and can be used as a baseline for future work. 

One important finding is that peri-urban areas have always played an important role in food flow into urban areas, such as Colombo. However, peri-urban areas across Sri Lanka are now being developed and urbanized at a faster rate than ever before. 

‘There is a danger that the limited land still available in peri-urban areas will be diminished or lost forever in the near future, and any that remains will be marginal,’ said Professor Marambe. ‘This will present huge risks to city region food systems, like that of Colombo.’

To avoid major disruption, he said, it is critical that the food flow connectivity across rural and urban areas be taken into account in all the main development areas in Sri Lanka.

Transport and storage issues 

The researchers found that some commodities can only be produced in certain parts of the country due to climate conditions, meaning they must travel significant distances from their places of production, processing, markets, and consumption. For instance, maize cannot be cultivated on a commercial scale in the Western Province due to heavy water conditions, so maize that is sold in Colombo comes from far afield. Potatoes, too, are grown only in central highlands and one district (Jaffna) of the Northern Province, but have wide distribution across the island. The majority of marine fish, meanwhile, are caught off the island’s Western, Southern and Eastern coasts.  

In times of crisis – be it extreme weather or COVID-19 – functioning transportation is a major determining factor in food reaching Colombo as quickly as possible. The researchers found common transportation issues all seven food flows, with implications for consumer prices and repercussions for other commodities. For instance, delays to maize consignments have an impact on animal feed millers, and shortages of animal feed affect the chicken meat industry, resulting in higher consumer prices. 

Whenever transportation is affected, food must be stored – but suitable facilities are not necessarily available at every point in the supply chain. 

‘Even if storage facilities are available, they are not always in perfect condition. They tend to look after the temperature component but they do not monitor humidity, meaning food may perish more quickly,’ said Professor Marambe. Perishable commodities considered in this study – that is, beans, banana, chicken meat and marine fish – are particularly vulnerable to unsuitable storage in case of delays. 

While potato is also perishable, the existence of specialised storage systems means there are fewer reports of losses due to transport interruptions. Paddy storage, too, is advanced in Sri Lanka, particularly in the north-central area where many of the millers are located. 

By-passing the system to reduce losses

In times of stress and uncertainty, some stakeholders try to by-pass nodes in the supply chain. 

For instance, rice collectors and millers usually try to collect paddy from producers as quickly as possible following climate events or when there are pandemic-related constraints, to maintain the flow of goods and ensure their business can run smoothly. If the collector is delayed, however, some farmers will by-pass the collector by dispatching their crops to the miller themselves. This precautionary measure reduces the risk of post-harvest loss due to unsuitable on-farm storage but can lead to negative impacts on collectors and transporters and a long-term reconfiguration of relationships. 

Distance affects consumer prices

Even at times when food flows are not affected by extreme weather or COVID-19 measures, the distance that food travels between supply chain nodes can have a major impact on consumer prices. 

For example, the major rice millers are concentrated in areas of high paddy production in the North Central Province. Red pericarp rice, however, is produced in the southern province, where there are only small and medium millers who do not have the rice polishing facilities that this variety requires for a better market price. As a result, a major part of the red pericarp rice is transported around 300 km to the major millers, then a further 250km west to Colombo. 

‘If there were suitable milling and polishing facilities in the south, the rice could travel directly from the southern province to Colombo,’ said Professor Marambe.  

---Jess Halliday (PhD), Chief Executive, RUAF CIC