Drought dents Sri Lanka's economic hopes, farmers' livelihood
The Hindu
The southwest monsoon that Sri Lankan farmers rely on for the Yala or summer harvest was scanty this year because of the El Nino weather pattern and the weather department estimates there will be no rains until October.
H.J.M Seneviratne (63) slices through yellowed paddy stems dried out by a drought that has destroyed more than 95% of his crop and is threatening crisis-hit Sri Lanka's summer rice harvest.
The island's economy was crushed last year by its worst financial crisis in more than seven decades, caused by a severe shortage of foreign exchange reserves that triggered widespread unrest and ousted its former President.
Helped by a $2.9 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Sri Lanka has slowly stabilised its economy since March, rebuilding its decimated reserves, moderating inflation and strengthening its currency.
But even before the country's agriculture sector could recover from sky-rocketing prices of inputs from fertiliser to power, the rains failed.
“I’ve been a farmer for forty years but I’ve never experienced a harder time than this,” Seneviratne said, standing in the middle of a dusty field near Anamaduwa, a town in north western Sri Lanka, clutching a fistful of straw-like paddy stems with hollow rice kernels. “We haven’t had enough rain since May. The harvest is so bad we don’t even have seed paddy for the next season.”
The southwest monsoon that farmers rely on for the Yala or summer harvest was scanty this year because of the El Nino weather pattern and the weather department estimates there will be no rains until October.
Typically, Seneviratne's four acres yield about 4.5-6 tonnes of paddy for the summer harvest but this time he predicts he will get only about 150 kg. All but one of the eight water tanks, large ponds in which rainwater is collected for irrigation, in the area have dried out, destroying about 200 acres of paddy.