Little rain: Rice crisis by June this year

Lack of water for paddy cultivation is expected to drastically reduce rice production by June this year, Agriculture Director General Rohan Wijekoon warned yesterday.

He said that already there had been a sharp drop in paddy cultivation during the current season.

“Paddy farmers were due to cultivate 800,000 hectares of land yet they were able to cultivate only about 300,000 hectares last year,” he said.

Dr. Wijekoon said that in 2015, Sri Lanka had a paddy harvest of 2.7 million metric tonnes -- high- er than the requirement of 2.2 million metric tonnes and as a result the buffer stocks would be sufficient till next month.

“The lack of rain has reduced the water levels of the tanks. The Irrigation Department notified us that it will halt or cut down the amount of water provided to the paddy fields, because it needed to preserve water for drinking and other essential purposes," he said.

The Agriculture Director General said that farmers who expect to cultivate paddy during the Yala Season from April to September this year would not get enough water from the Irrigation Departmetn as the tank levels were also low.

Irrigation Director General S.S.L Weerasinghe said the water levels of the tanks had gone down with many as low as one third of the capacity. He said some tanks were filled with mud and silt and therefore retaining water even during heavy rain falls was difficult.

“During times of heavy rain falls the tanks overflow and are unable to retain the water. Therefore we have drawn up plans to repair more than 50 tanks during this period,” he said.

Mr. Weerasinghe said the Meteorology Department had warned that the rain fall would be less than expected and therefore paddy farmers were being advised to switch to vegetable cultivation.

Meteorology Department Director General Lalith Chandrapala said there would be little rain during the first three months of this year. He said dry weather warnings had been given to the Agricultural Ministry, the Departments of Irrigation and Mahaweli and the Ceylon Electricity Board.