Ditwah’s impact on food production and lessons to be learned

Cyclone Ditwah has left an unprecedented trail of destruction almost islandwide, causing severe damage through heavy rains, landslides and crop damage in different agro ecological regions of this island quite apart from the tragic loss of human life, homes and infrastructure in many hilly areas.

- A. BEDGAR PERERA

Apart from other extensive damage there has been a highly significant adverse impact on food production through damage to lands cultivated with food crops required for human survival. The worst of the calamity is that the majority of those affected were the already poor.

The cyclone hit after the Yala harvest when most of the Maha (major) season crops were either just emerging or were still young and highly vulnerable. While the immediate physical devastation is evident in the destruction of houses and infrastructure, the deeper far reaching consequences are the hidden agricultural toll which will shape the food availability and farm incomes well into 2026.

While the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) and the Department of Agriculture(DOA) are busy collating information on crop damage caused by Ditwah, preliminary DOA data indicates that over 200,000 hectares of farmland have been damaged at different levels, with actual estimation of crop losses expected to be completed in the coming weeks. Affected paddy land comprise about 22% of the total cultivated extent.

While the paddy crop tolerates submergence to some extent, the actual damage will depend on the growth stage and the time length of inundation. Flooding also leads to deposit of thick layers of sand on the fields on a large scale and this can cause substantial crop loss and make salvaging the remaining crop or immediate re-cultivation impossible, pending removal of such deposits of sand.

Where resowing is possible, and if farmers decide to go for a late Maha crop, there would be an increased unexpected demand for seed paddy of the three month variety as there is time for another cultivation since the north east monsoon rains are just commencing. DOA authorities will naturally try to meet this demand provided sufficient stocks of seed paddy could be sourced.