News
Rains end drought, but farmers are in construction sites
The intermonsoon season has begun. Abundant rain predicted all over Sri Lanka will end the nearly year-long drought that hit more than one half of the country. But a new problem has arisen — the drought has forced many farmers to abandon agriculture and find jobs in the construction field.
Met Department officials said many parts of the country had begun to experience rains, with the conditions over the Bay of Bengal area favouring the onset of the inter-monsoon rains.
The atmospheric condition that prevailed over the Bay of Bengal in the past one month had delayed the second inter-monsoon rains, which usually began in early October and continued till the end of November, the Met Department officials said. Duty Meteorologist Dharshana Premathileka said the inter-monsoon rains which were now being experienced mainly in the afternoons would ease by the first week of December, but not before they had brought enough rains to most parts of the country.
He predicted that the Western Province and the drought hit regions such as the Northern, North Central and Eastern Provinces are expected to receive 500 mm of rain while the other parts of the country would also experience heavy rains upto 400 mm. Disaster Management Centre (DMC) Deputy Director Pradeep Kodippili said drought-hit areas had been receiving rains since early this week, but the centre was continuing its relief work in some areas in the Northern and Eastern Provinces. Its 300 bowsers filled with water are sent to these areas, since the situation has not improved yet.
Irrigation Department Director General M. Thuraisingham said the average water level in many reservoirs had gone up 30 percent, but there was not enough water still in irrigation tanks in the Hambantota, Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa districts for farmers to begin cultivation. They will have to wait till next month to start cultivation, he said.
Although farmers in the Batticaloa district, which experienced moderate rain in the past several week, have begun cultivation, the situation in the neighbouring Ampara district, regarded as the rice bowl of the country, was still bleak. Irrigated by large tanks, the district produces the biggest harvest in the country.
All-island Farmers Federation National Organiser Namal Karunaratne said paddy cultivation had declined by more than 75 percent during the Maha season due to the drought. This was because the Ampara district, the home for Sri Lanka’s largest paddy farmer population, remained largely uncultivated during the Maha Season.
The Maha season is so called, because in comparison to the Yala seaon, it reaps a bigger harvest. During this season, more than 800,000 hectares of paddy lands are cultivated throughout the country, enabling the farmers to reap a harvest of three million metric tonnes. This Maha season, farmers in only certain areas such as Mahiyangana, Kurunegala and Anuradhapura could engage in cultivation because small tanks in those areas had some water.
Mr. Karunaratne reiterated his call for a review of the Government’s water distribution policy, saying the priority should be given to agriculture. The Government policy appeared to be that it gave preference to hydroelectricity generation and water-dependent industries instead of agriculture.
Mr. Karunaratne said many farmers are in dire straits because of the prolonged drought. With their harvest failing, many farmers were in debt.
Deprived of their livelihood, some have left farming and found employment in building and road construction projects.
According to Sunil Ratnayake, a farmer leader from the Hambantota District, about 65,000 agriculture-dependent families in the Hambantota District had been badly affected by the drought and many men had left their villages looking for construction jobs.
In the Polonnaruwa district, where the livelihood of 90 percent of the population is cultivation, many farmer families barely ate three times a day, T.B. Sarath a farmer from the District said. He too said that many farmers had left the district looking for construction jobs in Colombo.