India's rice supply to Sri Lanka could never be timelier ahead of New Year
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Colombo: Nothing could make Sri Lankans happier than food supply from India, today.
For, the nation is about to celebrate a lackluster National New Year amid severe crisis.
India's timely consignment of 11,000 MT of rice reached the Island nation on Tuesday, IANS reported.
The fresh supply is part of the concessional Indian Credit Facility of $ 1 billion.
Previous to this consignment, India had delivered 5000 MT rice over the last few days.
Sri Lanka's State Trading Corporation will get a total of 40,000 MT rice under the agreement between the Government of Sri Lanka and the State Bank of India on March 17, 2020.
India's multi-pronged help to the nation included fuel, food supplies and economic and forex support, according to Indian High Commission in Colombo.
Less than a month after the agreement, the consignment of rice reached the nation.
India's support to Sri Lanka follows External Affairs Minister Dr.S. Jaishankar's visit to the island nation in March.
Sri Lanka spiraled into economic backwater after the nation's foreign reserves depleted, alongside the alleged bad governance by Rajapaksa family which put Sri Lanka in an inexorable crisis.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's banning of chemical fertiliser in favour of organic farming contributed largely to food shortage.
The decision led to fall of 40 per cent in crops production, especially rice.
Just as the traditional New Year is round the corner, farmers who usually cultivate around 700,000 hectares of paddy queue up before ration facilities for essentials.