On International Workers’ Day, May 1st, 2026, thousands of farmers, fishermen, livestock producers, and small-scale food producers from across Sri Lanka gathered in Kekirawa for the Peasants’ May Day rally the third in a growing series that began in Embilipitiya in 2024 and continued in Mannaar in 2025.
Under the banner “Peasants’ Power for a Systemic Change Against Exploitation and Violence,” participants presented a 14-point declaration demanding fundamental reforms to protect the rights, livelihoods, and food sovereignty of Sri Lanka’s rural farming communities.
A Movement Built from the Ground Up
For decades, the voices of Sri Lanka’s rural farmers have been borrowed by political parties and movements for their own agendas without delivering real change. The National Farmers’ Movement was formed to change that. This year’s rally in Kekirawa marks a milestone in building a unified platform where farmers, fishermen, and food producers can speak for themselves.
The backdrop is urgent. Sri Lanka’s compounding crises five years of economic turmoil, the COVID-19 pandemic, Cyclone Ditwah, and political instability have pushed rural communities to the brink. Globally, escalating wars and a widening food crisis are placing enormous pressure on smallholder farmers everywhere. Against this reality, the Kekirawa Declaration represents a call not just for relief, but for structural transformation.
The 14 Proposals: What Farmers Are Demanding
1. Guaranteed Prices for Agricultural Commodities
Farmers are demanding an end to market monopolies that strip them of the right to determine fair prices for their produce. The government must intervene decisively, including by strengthening institutions like the Rice Marketing Board, to ensure farmers receive a just return for their labour.
2. Halt to Projects Fuelling Human-Elephant Conflict
Development projects, large-scale commercial monoculture farming, and investment schemes are destroying natural ecosystems and escalating dangerous human-elephant conflict. The rally called for an immediate halt to all harmful and illegal schemes of this nature, alongside strong measures to network forests and prevent further deforestation.
3. Stop the Privatisation of Public Assets
Leasing and privatisation of public assets — pushed forward under the “public-private partnership” model at the direction of the International Monetary Fund — must stop immediately. In their place, people-oriented cooperative economic models must be introduced.
4. Deliver Promised Post-Disaster Relief
The government must urgently fulfil its promises to help farming communities rebuild their food baskets following recent disasters. Beyond immediate relief, a long-term, inclusive plan for systemic change must be developed with all relevant parties.
5. Protect Land and Resources from “Green” Privatisation
In the name of sustainable energy development, natural resources, agricultural lands, pastures, and fisheries are being handed over to private interests. This must stop. Community-based access to sustainable energy must be ensured instead.
6. Safeguard Natural Resources as Public Assets
All natural resources that underpin the people’s food sovereignty and long-term survival must be removed from the path of privatisation and protected as public resources for present and future generations.
7. A People-Centred Agricultural Policy
National agricultural policy has long been shaped by global economic demands at the expense of ordinary farmers. A new, people-centred agricultural policy must be built — one that addresses rural ill-health, livelihood disruption, and poverty, and that genuinely protects the futures of farming communities.
8. Implement UNDROP — The Rights of Peasants
Ecological agriculture must be adopted as a core national strategy. To support this, the government must implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP), which Sri Lanka has globally agreed to uphold.
9. Fulfil the Rights of Marginalised Communities
The rights and land claims of Hill Country (Malayaha) Tamil communities, people in the Northern and Eastern provinces, and all marginalised groups must be immediately addressed to ensure their dignity and livelihoods.
10. Protect the Right to Dissent
Laws and actions that deny people the right to freely express their opinions or hold dissenting views must be immediately reversed. Democratic freedoms are inseparable from the struggle for farmers’ rights.
11. Address the Root Causes of the Food Crisis
The global food crisis is being driven by capitalist processes of war, exploitation, and economic coercion. To build a genuinely different future, a comprehensive programme grounded in ecological agriculture must be introduced as a counter to these destructive forces.
12. Stop Laws Targeting Farmers’ Storage and Finance
New laws and regulations affecting storage facilities and financial mechanisms used by rural farmers and food producers must not be introduced. These measures threaten the independence and viability of smallholder farming.
13. Guarantee the Rights of Women in the Food System
Women are indispensable contributors to Sri Lanka’s food system, yet their role as food producers often goes unrecognised. Specific policies must be developed to guarantee their identity as food producers, ensure their access to common resources, and secure their participation in markets.
14. Regulate Food Trade Agreements That Harm Farmers
Trade agreements that drive harmful patterns of food imports and exports must be reviewed and regulated through strong policies and laws. These agreements damage farmers’ ability to produce food and violate the people’s right to quality, accessible nutrition.
A Declaration for the Future
The Kekirawa Declaration is more than a list of grievances — it is a vision for a Sri Lanka where farmers are empowered, not exploited; where natural resources serve communities, not corporations; and where policies are shaped by the needs of the people who feed the nation.
The National Farmers’ Movement calls on the government, policymakers, civil society, and citizens to stand with Sri Lanka’s rural farming communities in turning these 14 proposals into reality.
“We are therefore prepared to unite to defend the rights of the country’s rural farmers, who are being sacrificed by the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and global powers, including their rights to heritage, land, food, seeds, and water resources.” — 2026 Farmers’ May Day Declaration, Kekirawa