Agriculture in Sri Lanka

Agriculture in Sri Lanka mainly depends on rice production.^[1] Its main goal is to achieve an equitable and sustainable agricultural development through development and dissemination of improved agriculture technology. To achieve this end Sri Lankan government has Department of Agriculture – Sri Lanka (DOASL).^[2] The Department main functions are research, extension, seed and planting material production, regulatory services, plant quarantine, soil conservation, registration of pesticides. Media production unit of the department is Audio Visual Centre (AVC) - Sri Lanka. There are few Agriculture Parks abbreviated as A.Parks established by the department. One is located at Gannoruwa and the most recent one is at the Bataatha. Bataatha A.Park is recently world famous for having world first farmers monument at its entrance.

Agriculture made up 30.5% of employment in Sri Lanka in 2005, down from 36.8 in 1995.^[3]

Rice cultivation in Sri Lanka

Rice is the main food in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka also exports some quantity of rice every year. In the last few years, however, that didn't happen. DOA is expecting a paddy harvest of 2.7 million MT in the Yala season, which runs from late April to mid September. Around 807,763 hectares of land cultivated in Sri Lanka for paddy, 64% is cultivated in Maha season while 35% is cultivated in Yala season. Around 879,000 farmer families are engaged in paddy cultivation in Sri Lanka. They are 20% of the country’s population and 32% of the employment. Now most of the farmers are cultivating genetically improved seeds. If the weather is a good farmer will get a good yield. Dry weather in harvesting season is necessary.^{[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]}

Tea plantations

The central highlands of the country, low temperature climate throughout the year, annual rainfall and the level of humidity are more favourable geographical factors for production in high quality tea. The industry was introduced to the country in 1867 by James Taylor, the British planter who arrived in 1852.^{[12][13][14][15][16][17][18]}

Development issues

According to the World Bank:^[3]

• Weaknesses in strategy and policy
• Heavy public sector regulatory interventions in commodity and input/factor markets
• Weak delivery of services in rural areas
• Destructive impact of civil conflict and tsunami

See also

• Economy of Sri Lanka

References