The Government has no immediate plans to import rice despite concerns over the possible impact of the prevailing dry conditions and El Niño on the upcoming Maha cultivation season, according to the Ministry of Trade, Commerce, Food Security, and Co-operative Development.
Media Secretary to the Minister of Trade Sameera Prabhash Wijesinghe told The Sunday Morning that the Government saw no need at present for additional rice imports due to the availability of sufficient stocks in the country.
“There are no plans to import rice given the current situation because there is an adequate surplus,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ministry of Agriculture Secretary D.P. Wickramasinghe said it was too early to determine how much land would be affected or whether there would be any production losses, as a final decision on Maha cultivation had yet to be made.
According to Wickramasinghe, a meeting involving water and irrigation officials as well as farmers from across the country is scheduled for 18 September, when authorities are expected to make a final decision on water allocation and the commencement of the Maha cultivation season.
He added that potential production losses were yet to be calculated, stressing that the decision would depend on the amount of water available and how it could be distributed among cultivation areas.
“The decision on starting cultivation for the upcoming season will be made after the meeting on the 18th, where we will discuss how water will be distributed, how much water is available, and other details,” he said.
However, he said that the country was unlikely to face a major water shortage for Maha cultivation, noting that there was water in the Mahaweli reservoirs at present.
“We will probably not face a huge problem, as there is water in the Mahaweli reservoirs at present,” Wickramasinghe opined, adding that recent rainfall in areas such as Bandarawela could also contribute to water availability.
Director of Irrigation – Water Management Eng. P.S.D. Herath stated that the water currently available was sufficient to complete the ongoing Yala cultivation season, with harvesting progressing across the country’s major irrigation schemes.
Speaking at a media briefing, Herath said that the harvesting in lands managed by the Irrigation Department had reached around 75%, adding that cultivation-related activities in almost all major irrigation schemes were expected to be completed within the next two weeks.
“This current water percentage is sufficient for cultivation in the ongoing Yala season. It is also expected that this volume of water will be adequate for the areas obtaining drinking water from these reservoirs until the rainfall arrives,” he noted.
Addressing concerns over the upcoming Maha season, Herath said that the authorities expected to commence cultivation on nearly 400,000 acres across 302 schemes before the arrival of the monsoon rains.
However, National Agrarian Unity President Anuradha Tennakoon warned that farmers could face considerable risks if they were encouraged to commence Maha cultivation before adequate water was available in the irrigation system.
According to Tennakoon, farmers generally require major and medium-scale reservoirs to be at around 60% water capacity before water allocation for the Maha season can begin. He claimed that over 2,000 small tanks had already dried up completely, with many others remaining below 20% capacity.
He said that the situation could particularly affect rain-fed and irrigation-dependent farming communities in districts including Kurunegala, Anuradhapura, and Monaragala, as well as areas of the Northern Province.
“The targeted cultivated area is roughly around 850,000 hectares,” Tennakoon said, noting that farmers could normally cultivate around 880,000 hectares during Maha when rainfall permitted.
He also warned that without a guarantee of adequate water, farmers were reluctant to begin ploughing and other field preparations as they could face additional costs if cultivation had to be restarted.
Tennakoon argued that the accumulation of silt in reservoirs over decades had damaged the country’s irrigation capacity, claiming that many reservoirs had not undergone proper desilting.
He also criticised what he called an over-reliance on El Niño to explain the current situation, contending that long-standing flaws in Sri Lanka’s irrigation infrastructure and changing rainfall patterns were also responsible for the country’s water-related challenges.