There will be enough water for Maha season, say agriculture and irrigation officials

By Ifham Nizam

The Department of Meteorology and the Ministry of Agriculture have predicted that the coming northeast monsoon rains will be a boon for agricultural activities Officials from Departments of Irrigation, Mahaweli, Meteorology, Agrarian Development, Agriculture etc., met recently to discuss the impact of the weather and climate factors on the success of paddy and other crops in the next season.

This discussion took place in the Ministry of Agriculture. Minister Mahinda Amaraweera, Secretary of the Ministry Rohana Pushpakumara and a group of Mahaweli Development Authority officials also participated.

Currently, the capacity of all reservoirs under the Mahaweli Development Authority is close to 70 percent and that the capacity of reservoirs under major irrigation and minor irrigation is also high. Therefore, the officials said that there was sufficient water to for the Maha season.Amaraweera said that steps would be taken to provide fertilizer for paddy cultivation, starting with the Ampara Gal Oya scheme in the first week of October.

He also said that it was possible to provide urea fertilizer to the farmers in the first week of November under the loan assistance of the World Bank. The amount expected to be provided by the World Bank is 110 million dollars.

He also emphasised that the government had made arrangements to provide insecticides, herbicides and other inputs needed for farming.The release of water for paddy cultivation in the Maha season would start from the Gal Oya Senanayake reservoir, and all the officials emphasised that plans had been made to release water from the start of paddy cultivation till the end of November.