- Mohammad Asik
Since ancient times, Sri Lanka was acknowledged as an agricultural country, especially for its paddy cultivation. This is because Sri Lankans consider rice as their staple food.
Sri Lanka, boasts of a past where kings of yesteryear utilised every drop of water that fell from the sky. But today, Sri Lanka is facing many obstacles when it comes to paddy cultivation. This is an investigation on the fallow paddy fields in the Kandy district, a unique region with a proud history.
According to the information obtained from the Department of Agrarian Development under the Right to Information Act, out of 45,457 acres of paddy fields located in the Kandy district, 1813 acres, 32 perches, and 02 roods have turned fallow in the year 2022.
The Kandy district consists of 20 divisional secretariat divisions with a population of 1,501,000 as per the 2021 census, and the district spans across an area of 1940 square kilometers.
Paddy cultivation takes a special place in the Kandy district. Under the Minipe Irrigation Scheme, a major agricultural movement is in operation, and in addition to that, paddy is grown in more or less in every divisional secretariat division.
However, a large number of paddy fields in the district turned fallow over the past period, and a good yield was not reaped even though these fallow fields were harvested. Even though there is a process of harvesting fallow fields in the Kandy district, farmers continue to claim that there are more fallow fields in the region.
The information obtained under the provisions of the Right to Information Act No. 12 of 2016 regarding paddy cultivation in the district can be summarized as follows.
According to a request made under the Right to Information Act, these details were provided by Mrs. Anusha Devapriya, Assistant Commissioner for Agricultural Development, Kandy.
The Department of Agrarian Development states that there are 45,457 acres and 03 perches of paddy fields in the Kandy district, of which 26,846 acres have been cultivated in the last Yala season.
According to the information provided by the Department of Farmer Welfare, in 2022, 1813 acres 02 rood and 32 perches of paddy fields were fallow.
The Department of Agrarian Development states that 378 acres, 2 roods and 32 perches of fallow paddy fields are expected to be re-cultivated in 2022. The information provided by the Assistant Commissioner for Agrarian Development, further states that 191 acres and 02 roods of paddy fields of the district are expected to be re-cultivated this season.
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