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Awaiting to usher the National New Year, crisis-ridden Sri Lanka on Tuesday, 12 April, welcomed a consignment of 11,000 MT of rice received under the concessional Indian Credit Facility of $1 billion.
Having delivered 5,000 MT over the last few days, Tuesday's consignment is a part of a total of 40,000 MT to be imported by the State Trading Corporation from India under the Credit Facility Agreement, which was signed between the Government of Sri Lanka and the State Bank of India on 17 March 2022.
"The expeditious supply, before the Sinhala and Tamil New Year, is in line with the understandings reached regarding India's support for Sri Lanka's energy and food security," the Indian High Commission in Colombo said.
The assistance comes in the wake of India's External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar's visit to Sri Lanka in March.
Rajapaksa's decision to ban inorganic fertiliser on health and environment reasons plunged the country's agriculture into a disaster with a 40 percent drop in crops production, especially rice. The move also denied harvesting of paddy for farmers, which is also connected to the tradition of the national new year.
Nearly two million farmers who cultivate around 7,00,000 hectares of paddy during Maha Season falls during the "north-east monsoon" from September to March have been affected.
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