An severe drought islandwide similar to experienced during 1974-77 and 1981-83 is expected to grip the country in July 2017.
The Meteorology Department weather experts and Agriculture Department Natural Resources Management Division have issued its predictions forecasting the pattern of the drought, the agriculture authorities told Daily News yesterday.
They said paddy cultivations in the dry zone are going to be badly hit by the drought. At least 280,000 hectares of paddy fields in the dry zone will go out of cultivation due to it.
The authorities said some rice millers have hidden their rice stocks to take advantage of the situation. “They have hidden them so that they can release them into the market during the drought and charge exorbitant prices from consumers,” an official said.
“By refraining from releasing paddy rice into the market, they have created a price increase in rice,” he said.
“This will not last long. Action is in place to import rice. We have been instructed to import rice to protect consumers from exploitations,” he said.
When questioned Deputy Project Director P. N. N. Jayanetti about their drought mitigation preparedness to ensure food security, he said they have devised a strategy in addressing drought vulnerabilities. "Diversification programmes have been launched to minimise crop damage and to ensure availability of crops,” he said. “Short-term seedlings for paddy will be distributed among farmers to cultivate paddy as per predicted climate conditions. But the harvest will be less than that of the long-term seeds,” he said.
“Crops such as green gram, cow pea and orid (undu) will be grown to suit to the climatic stimuli or the impact of the drought as part of an adaptation strategy,” Jayanetti said. “We are going to grow more vegetables in Colombo, Matara and Gampaha areas,” he said. As regards irrigation of crops, a water sharing management plan will be under way,
he said. “There will be no shortage of rice until the end of May because we have enough stocks. There will be no shortage because we will import rice,” he said. Ministry authorities will function from a centre in Kandy to mitigate agriculture issues, he added.