Informing humanitarians worldwide 24/7 — a service provided by UN OCHA

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka Food Security Monitoring: Remote Household Food Security Survey Brief, January 2023

Attachments

In Brief

According to the January assessment results, 32 percent of households are food insecure. In 2019,1 food insecurity levels in the country stood at 9.1 percent.* Over the past four months, food security levels have remained above the 30 percent range. Wholesale traders have reported a decline in prices of essential food commodities, attributing it to the recent release of food stocks in local markets. Additionally, there has been a decrease in vegetable prices due to revamping the disrupted supply chain.

Households across the country continue to turn to food and livelihood-based coping strategies. Seven in ten households (73 percent) are adopting food-based coping strategies, and 68 percent of households are consuming less preferred food.

Food and fuel prices remain a prime concern for many households. Fifty one percent of households are purchasing food on credit.

Consumption of adequate diets remains low.

Thirty percent of households are facing insufficient food consumption, with 40 percent consuming limited portions.
Female-headed households continue to fare worse than male-headed households. Households in the estate and rural areas experienced higher levels of acute food insecurity than those in urban areas in January. Similar disparities can be found across income sources.

The ongoing maha season harvest (February - March is likely to improve the situation. Despite the ongoing harvest season, a combination of factors such as less land cultivated, lower yields and the ongoing economic crisis could result in a short-lived food security situation.