Spiraling food crisis looms as Sri Lankan farmers abandon fields

Fears of a hunger crisis are rising in Sri Lanka, a teardrop-shaped island south of India. Shortages of items like flour and milk powder are widespread

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.

“I do not know what the harvest will be,” said Daranagama, who grows rice in the coastal district of Gampaha. “I have never seen a situation like this.”

Fears of a hunger crisis are rising in Sri Lanka, a