300,000 Metric tonnes of rice may be lost to floods: Dept. of Agriculture

By Leenah Wahab

We can expect a rice production loss of around 300,000 tonnes due to the damage caused to paddy by the floods, the Department of Agriculture told the Daily Mirror yesterday.

Director of Socio-Economics and Planning at the Department of Agriculture, Dr. Chamila Chandrasiri said almost 600,000 hectares of paddy fields have been devastated, with a 100% loss of 50,000 hectares of cultivated paddy. “According to data reported in late November, 500,746 hectares of land have been ruined. The remaining land has incurred between 25-75% of total damage, so those areas may be repaired,” she said.

Furthermore, Dr. Chandrasiri said cultivation typically begins in October with the onset of monsoon rains, and the Maha harvest takes place between February and March. “The government will try to re-cultivate the damaged areas through seed distribution programmes, but this may be difficult depending on the extent of damage,” she said. Areas damaged include Ampara, Batticaloa, Trincomalee, Northern regions and the Mahaweli systems.

Senior Research Officer at the Hector Kobbekaduwa Agrarian Research and Training Institute (HARTI), Dr. N.P.G. Samantha, said there is a discrepancy between paddy and rice supply. “Even though the Department of Agriculture forecast that there is no shortage of paddy in the market and remaining paddy will be able to sustain the country till June, there is an evident scarcity of rice. This mistake may be because the Department of Census and Statistics published data after the Maha season,” he said.

However, Dr. Samantha said that while the rice shortage prevails now, efforts to import will stabilise supply, and there are no risks of price hikes due to the establishment of a maximum retail price.