Sri Lanka’s paddy harvest to cross 5 MMTs next year: USDA

Sri Lanka’s paddy rice (un-milled) harvest output is projected to cross five million metric tons (MMT) next year after recording a partial recovery this year, according to the latest report published by the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS).
However, USDA highlighted that climate change is becoming a growing challenge to Sri Lanka’s rice production.

USDA predicted Sri Lanka’s paddy harvest to increase marginally by two percent Year-on-Year (YoY) to 02 MMT in 2024/2025 market year (October-September) from the estimated 4.96 MMT in the MY 2023/2024. Sri Lanka’s paddy rice dropped to a precarious 2.57 MMT in MY 2021/2022 as a direct result of a short-lived ban on chemical fertiliser and agrochemicals. 
“Productive recovery is also subject to favourable weather conditions. Production costs are expected to marginally decrease in tandem with declines in global fertiliser prices along with an appreciation of the Sri Lankan rupee (i.e., the local currency) against the U.S. dollar,” it said.

It also forecasted Sri Lanka’s milled rice output to increase to 3.42 MMT, coming from a planted area of 1.1 million hectares, with yields of 4.57 metric tons (MT)/hectare (rough rice).  The USDA estimated rice production to have increased 850,000 MT or 21 percent YoY to 3.37 MMT for MY 2023/2024, with better yields of 4.35 MT/hectare compared to the previous market year.
Meanwhile, Sri Lankan government institutions and international donor agencies are now shifting away from emergency humanitarian assistance to more sustainable long-term solutions for paddy rice production.