Sri Lanka’s collision with nature: Lessons from India to address agrarian question and employment

NATURE seems to be at war with a market-driven investment pattern slowly decaying the means of survival for the masses.

- By Dhanusha Gihan Pathirana

In many ways, this ecological pushback expressed through Cyclone Ditwah, mirrors the 2022 people's uprising, which sought to overthrow an entrenched political establishment. Just as that quest remains incomplete, nature is waging its own campaign against an economy dictated by self-interest. As the climate breaks, more decisive acts of defiance from the natural world appear inevitable, mirroring the political and economic struggles that lie ahead for the masses.

The scale of devastation to crops

The immediate scale of this conflict is now finally clear. Initial estimates from the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO UN) following the Cyclone Ditwah, combined with ongoing monsoon rains, paint a harrowing picture. Over 1,200 landslides have been triggered in the hills while severe flooding in the low-lying areas affecting over 10% of the total population.

The National Building Research Organisation reports that 30% of Sri Lanka's total land mass -home for 34% of the populationis under the risk of landslides. Flood waters have submerged 20% of the total land mass of the country, destroying roughly 380,000 acres of cultivated land. Out of this, 330,000 acres were paddy lands accounting for 86% of the destruction (FAO UN). Depending on the degree of destruction the machine rents may also rise in the absence of state intervention to restore the supply. International Food Policy Research Institute finds that 32.8% of households experience moderate to severe food insecurity while this figure is as high as 54.5% in the estates by November 2025, even before the cyclone's devastation. Given that agricultural losses directly threaten food availability, inflation, employment and livelihood of millions, Government must prioritise the recovery and restructure of the affected agricultural land and industrial employment creation.

The trap of agricultural overextension