Move Beyond Fake and So-called Solutions; Uphold the People’s Right to Food!

Build food sovereignty and make the right to food a reality!

Today, 16 October, is World Food Day. Across the world, countries mark this day with various activities. Yet even as they do so, millions of people burdened by hunger, malnutrition, poverty, climatic shocks, and unsustainable debt are either dying or going hungry. At this very moment, there is enough food produced to feed 10 billion people, but people still die of starvation. Global powers have failed to make the concept behind the World Food Day a reality. It is merely a commemoration. Nevertheless, tens of thousands of peasants, fishers, Indigenous peoples, agricultural workers, and consumers continue to resist in defense of their rights.

The Food and Agriculture Organization named this day in 1979, on its 20th anniversary. But for decades it has acted less to find real solutions and more to remove obstacles to corporate-led, fake and so-called plans. While the vast majority go hungry, the global agricultural and food trade has been maintained in a way that grants enormous advantages to a small number of corporations. Today, more than 60% of the world’s seed and agro-chemical market is controlled by just four leading companies. Close to 70% of the world’s agricultural land is held by the top 1% with large estates. Lands, seeds, and coastal resources that belonged to farmers, fishers, and other small-scale producers have been turned into sites for corporate profit. As a result, the global food trade has become a racket that generates profits for corporations rather than providing people with food, and no steps have been taken to reverse this. The FAO has been unable to state plainly that corporate-driven, large-scale destructive agriculture, deforestation for production, widespread chemical inputs, and food planning, bears direct responsibility for the destruction of natural resources and the escalation of climate catastrophe.

What is happening in Sri Lanka?

Alongside the worst COVID outbreak and the economic crisis, one of the country’s greatest challenges was the collapse in food production, distribution, and markets, together with soaring prices. What was the root cause? Our agriculture is import-dependent: a large share of Agro-chemicals, fertilizer, equipment, and seeds is imported, and 60% of food and beverages is imported. This is so even though nearly 45% of national land is used for agriculture, around 30% of the population depends on agriculture for livelihoods, and Sri Lanka, long considered an agricultural country, has favorable natural conditions for farming and food production. Yet hunger, malnutrition, and farmer poverty remain unresolved. According to 2022 data, 3.5 million households in Sri Lanka suffered from food insecurity. More than 50% of plantation communities were food insecure. Thirty percent of women suffer from anaemia, and 15% of children under five are underweight. The core reason is the lack of access to adequate, nutritious food. Much of the food is laced with Agro-chemicals and pesticides. Sri Lanka has become one of the world’s heaviest users of agricultural chemicals. A majority of the population, including children, are increasingly victims of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes.

Why did our country end up here?

Since the 1970s Sri Lanka has followed a fundamentally flawed agricultural and food policy, with no meaningful course correction to date. State roles in food production, regulation, management, and decision-making were restructured so that the market would decide. Farmers’ rights to land, seed, and water were stripped away. As production costs rose, farming became loss-making. Farmers have been given no say over decisions affecting their produce in the market. Deforestation to make way for large-scale plantations has destroyed wildlife habitats.  Human–wildlife conflict has reached unprecedented levels with food systems collapsing. Control over seed, land, and water has slipped from the people and into corporate hands. Under state patronage, corporations decide what is cultivated on our lands, which seeds we use, which fertilizers we apply, and at what prices production is carried out. Smallholders have been reduced to corporate dependents. Dairy farmers are losing their pasturelands and are being pushed out of traditional production. Large development schemes, industrial-scale fishing, and water pollution are depriving fishing communities of their livelihoods. Plantation companies and corporations have failed to improve the living standards of agricultural workers, who are central to our Agri-economy, or even to guarantee their right to food, enable them to meet their dietary needs, or provide them with land for home gardens.

Where are we heading now?

The new government elected in 2024 proposes to reform food policy and budget allocations by focusing on increasing productivity, enhancing competitiveness, strengthening environmental resilience, and modernizing agricultural systems to protect both farmers and consumers. All of these approaches have been tried for decades. Globally, they have failed to safeguard food producers or to eradicate malnutrition.

Democratic governments and social movements around the world are breaking up monopolies in the global food chain and moving towards new global approaches. It is essential to adopt new political measures to transform the food system. We must act now to heal the planet and build a community-based pathway towards a food system accessible to all. Through a cooperative economic model, we must protect ecosystems, strengthen mutual aid, establish people-centered finance, and build programs that regenerate nature.

We call for:

1. Attention to the Kandy Declaration presented after the Third Nyéléni Global Summit on Food Sovereignty, with the participation of 102 countries; and

2. Action to implement the changes needed to transform the entire food system in line with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP).

Movement for Land and Agricultural Reform (MONLAR)

16 October 2025