Agriculture Minister tells public servants to cut their rice intake by two-thirds

Agriculture Minister K.D. Lalkantha has urged state employees to cut the amount of rice they eat by two-thirds, a suggestion he acknowledged would draw criticism.

Speaking at a ceremony on Wednesday, the minister — whose portfolio covers agriculture, livestock, lands and irrigation — said his proposal was aimed at public servants in particular, Hiru News reported.

“My proposal to public servants is to cut the rice you currently eat by two-thirds,” he said. “People scold me for this. Most public servants are sitting down.”

That last line is the whole of the reasoning the filing carries: the remark is pitched at sedentary office work rather than at rice supply.

Why it registers

Rice is the staple of the Sri Lankan diet and the central political commodity in the country’s agriculture ministry, which sets paddy purchase prices, manages buffer stocks and periodically authorises imports when harvests fall short. A minister in that seat telling people to eat less of it is unusual enough to carry weight regardless of the health argument behind it.

Lalkantha has a record of blunt public remarks. In October he told a gathering that punishment should fall on the person rather than the robe in a case involving monks, and he has previously taken aim at private media coverage of paddy pricing.

Not reported

The filing does not say where the ceremony was held or what the occasion was. It gives no health advice, no dietary guidance on what should replace the rice, and no supporting data on consumption levels among state employees. It does not indicate whether this is a personal view or the start of any ministry campaign, and it carries no response from public sector trade unions or from the Health Ministry.

Nothing in the report links the suggestion to paddy supply, stocks or prices.

Single source. Searches of the Daily Mirror, NewsFirst, EconomyNext, the Island, Daily FT, Daily News, News.lk and Colombo Gazette returned only older coverage of food security policy and rice imports — none of it this remark. Ada Derana remains unreachable from this desk.