Drought hits agriculture sector

By Gamini WARUSHAMANA

Sri Lanka may suffer the negative impact of climate change this year as the north- west monsoon rain has delayed. The drought continuing in most parts of the country hashit the agricultural sector.

The prevailing drought has affected paddy, vegetable and other food cultivation and as a result vegetable prices have increased sharply. Traders said that supplies from all major cultivation areas have dropped.

The Ministry of Irrigation said that around 26,298 hectares of paddy cultivation will be destroyed by drought this Yala season.

The Ministry said that farmers faced this calamity as they have not followed instructions given by irrigation officials.

They had instructed farmers to limit paddy cultivation to 40 percent and plant other crops instead, considering the water levels dropping in all reservoirs. But farmers have cultivated paddy and now there is no water to be released.

However, Director General of the Department of Agriculture, K.G.Sriyapala was optimistic that the drought may not affect paddy cultivation to create a shortage in rice.

The plantation sector too has felt the impact and specially tea production this year will decline, sources said. Senior Research Officer of the Tea Research Institute, Dr.M.A.Wijerathne said that tea plantations in all parts of the country have been affected by drought and the yield will decline as a result.

Assistant Manager of Alton estate Up Hot, Hatton, Dilroy Manohar said that tea yield has dropped by around 50 kg/ he. The usual heavy rains have not come this monsoon season and only occasional showers around 1-2 mm were experienced in the past few months. The monsoon rain has not started as yet and therefore planting and applying fertiliser has delayed, he said.

Another sector that causes a serious threat on the economy is electricity generation. CEB officials said that water levels in all reservoirs have dropped to 24 percent of 1259 GWH total capacity. The remaining capacity cannot be used and they should be shared with agriculture and drinking water needs as well, they said. As a result the CEB has to shift to high cost thermal power generation.

This situation will further reduce economic growth this year . Recently the IMF said that economic growth this year will be around 6.7 percent. Earlier it had forecast 7.2 percent growth. The Government has identified the negative impact of climate change as an inevitable challenge in economic development. This has been emphasised in the Annual Report of the Ministry of Finance released last month.

According to statistics of the meteorological department, global warming has affected Sri Lanka. During the last 22- years, Sri Lanka's air temperature has increased by 0.45 C and it is equal to 0.2 C increase per decade. As a result consecutive dry days and the number of warm days and warm nights have increased while cold days and cold nights have reduced.

Rainfall too has been declining over last 30-40 years and the trend is towards one- day heavy rainfall event. Under these climate conditions, vulnerability of crops such as rice, vegetables and other food crops is increasing and the livelihood of 1.8 million people is under risk.