• Kurunegala, Udawalawe, Colombo, Gampaha, Kalutara, Matale, N-Eliya, Galle, Matara, H’tota, Ampara, A’pura, P’naruwa the worst hit 

A total of 37,101 acres of paddy cultivation belonging to 32,967 farmers across the country have been destroyed due to the drought in several areas, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.

While several parts of the country have been affected by the drought, the Ministry had recently instructed the Agricultural and Agrarian Insurance Board (AAIB) to assess the damages caused by the drought to paddy cultivations. An official of the Ministry told The Daily Morning that a total of 25 teams have been deployed to carry out the relevant assessments, and that a report is presented to subject Minister Mahinda Amaraweera on a daily basis.

According to the relevant report that had been submitted on Tuesday (15), the most crop damage due to the drought, which amounts to 19,388 acres belonging to 22,357 farmers, had been reported from the Kurunegala District. The second largest extent of damage, 10,125 acres belonging to 4,050 farmers, had been reported from the Udawalawe Zone. Significant damages have also been caused to paddy cultivations in several other Districts including Colombo, Gampaha, Kalutara, Matale, Nuwara Eliya, Galle, Matara, Hambantota, Ampara, Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa. The report prepared by the AAIB states that a total of 37,101 acres of paddy cultivation belonging to 32,967 farmers have been destroyed due to the drought conditions.

The AAIB has informed Amaraweera that it would take about one month to prepare the complete report on crop damages caused by the drought. It is against that backdrop that the Minister (Amaraweera) has instructed the Secretary to the Ministry, Gunadasa Samarasinghe to prepare a Cabinet paper regarding crop damages. Amaraweera is to submit it to the Cabinet of Ministers next week.

While the prevailing drought will likely affect the expected paddy harvest in the Yala cultivating season, the Ministry recently warned of a risk of a serious food shortage in the future. The Ministry also urged farmers and the public to grow food crops in every available patch of land in preparation for the anticipated food crisis.