Farmers demand Rs 50,000 per acre for crop damage
Farmers whose crop was devastated by the severe drought are demanding financial compensation of Rs 50,000 per acre, although the island has experienced patches of rain in recent days.
A farmer group says 500,000 hectares of paddy had been abandoned because of the drought.
Agriculture officials say there could be a rice scarcity because the area cultivated in the Maha season from September to March has diminished.
Recently, the island received 312 millimetres of rain in the Eastern Province while the north, north central, uva and southern parts received substantial rain. Some of the tanks reached spill levels.
Director General of the Department of Agriculture, Dr Rohn Wijekoon, said there could be a rice shortage.
He said that only 400,000 hectares of paddy had been cultivated compared with the usual 800,000 hectares grown during the Maha season.
“Only 60,000 hectares out of 100,0000 hectares of paddy in Polonnaruwa survived,’’ he said.
It was only in Ampara that all 70,000 hectares of paddy survived.
He also explained that the soya and maize crop remained undamaged.
Dr Wijekoon said two cabinet papers had been submitted to promote cultivation of abandoned land in the wet zone and to purchase seed paddy.
All-Island Farmers Federation, national organiser, Namal Karunaratne, claimed that farmers were forced to abandon 500,000 hectares of paddy fields due to lack of water and damage from the drought.
Karunaratne said the 4,046 hectares of crop that had been saved by using water reserved for drinking could become productive following the rains.
“Farmer associations are demanding compensation of Rs 50,000 per acre but the Government is trying to provide Rs 10,000 per acre. We are calling for a series of protests island wide starting from Polonnaruwa.’’
Senarath Sirisena, a paddy farmer in Monaragala, said much of the area’s crop had been destroyed. The rain came too late.
“We can’t cultivate paddy now, it will be harvesting time soon. Normally the harvesting is in January. But it has been delayed,” he said.
Sirisena said farmers in Kiri Ibban Ara and Udawalawe were not allowed to use water from tanks for cultivation. The vegetable cultivation has suffered, he said
“Vegetable farmers in Kirindi Oya and Thanamalivila areas experienced the drought when the crop needed water, but the rains came when it was time to harvest the vegetables,’’ he said.
P D Ajantha Jayathilake, who grows big onions in Matale, said the untimely rains destroyed her crop. She lives in Ruwanpura. “The weather is irregular and changing, when we need water for our crop, it never rains, but when the rains do come our crop gets damaged.’’
She also complained that officials at meteorology, agriculture and irrigation departments have failed the farmers.
A farmer in Nuwara Eliya, Michel de Silva, said despite the rain for five days, the damage had already been done to the crop. But some of the vegetable crop had recovered.
Silva said that during earlier dry months, hailstorms destroyed the crop.
An official of the District Secretary’s Office in Polonnaruwa, Tissa Dasanayake, said that the rains that fell the during week filled up the tanks. He said compensation for farmers was being discussed.
The Director General of the Irrigation Department, S S L Weerasinghe said the Parakrama Samudraya water level has risen while Kala Wewa has reached spilling point.
The Rabakan Oya tank flood gates had been raised by about six inches, he said.
Weerasinghe said the capacity in the water tanks had reached 32 percent from a low of 23 percent.
He rejected claims by farmers that silt had accumulated in the country’s tanks. “Though farmers claim that mud has filled up the tanks, they still can retain full capacity. The tanks need to be dredged up only after 100 years,” he said.
The Meteorology Department said north, northeast, uva, and southern provinces received rains. Akkaraipattu received more than 300mm of rain.