Food and climate change media research initiative

Saturday, 11 March 2023 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Food security is an aspect that is currently seen by Sri Lankans as affecting them exclusively. Yet, it is a danger that many Western countries have identified a few years back, alongside a depletion of ground water resources and policy decisions have been taken to look at diverse solutions such as harnessing the knowledge of inventors, farmers, climate specialists and others to look at practical solutions that will aid food production.

The meat industry is known to be detrimental to environment protection and climate because it requires a very high water resource utilisation. Much of the world’s water resources are turning saline and depleting. Desertification of soil is increasing. The threat of natural disasters are intensifying as we saw in Turkey and Syria. With such disasters come increased poverty and food insecurity.

There are many media related solutions needed in Sri Lanka especially in the backdrop of the current economic crisis, to trigger a multi-sector approach to mitigate the impact of such disasters. The Harmony Page is initiating a comparative South Asia media research that will seek out recollections from agrarian farmers of South Asian countries above the age of 60 years.

These recollections will be collected to record changes they have seen in climate in the areas that they live and the traditional knowledge of their ancestors on adapting to the environmental changes through indigenous farming practices. The media research will look at the relevance of indigenous farming practices of different cultures in South Asia and the relevance to modern day food and climate security and how it is linked to increased economic insecurity. The media research to be carried out over a period of one year beginning March 2023, aims to portray in the Harmony page case studies that look at influencing local agrarian policy by positioning the little sought out traditional knowledge of the farmers. Within Sri Lanka this research aims to create cohesion and interaction between Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim farmers in the different provinces of the country.

The Harmony Page will be publishing 1 to 2 case study narratives every two months with co-related interviews with the State and Non State sector.