Sri Lanka, July 9 -- The novel coronavirus which drove cities and countries into lockdown has now sparked anxiety over a possible food crisis given the increase in export and import bans and disruption of global food supply chains.

This uncertainty has left the Sri Lankan government to question whether these disruptions would affect food security in the near future and if ensuring self-sufficiency is the absolute and undisputed solution to this conundrum. In this attempt to achieve self-sufficiency in food the government has resorted to import substitution to strengthen domestic production.

Keeping in line with these protectionist policies the government has indefinitely extended import controls that were initially introduced on the 22n...