Abstract:
Banana cultivation was the crop of the Angunakolapalassa D.S. Division since 1985.
Angunakolapalsssa is under the “Uda Wdawlawa special Mahaweli area”. Initially the
project was designed for paddy cultivation.
The Uda Walawa left bank covers an area of 37,000 ha. Out of that area banana had
been cultivated around 50% while paddy cultivated in the rest. However, at present, the
cultivation has decreased around 25% when compared to earlier figures.
At the initial stage of the Udawalewe project, paddy cultivation was very profitable
and therefore it was widespread in the area. However during early 1980s the price of
paddy had decreased gradually, and the cost of the inputs of paddy cultivation had
increased, due to the introduction of the liberalized economic policies to Sri Lanka.
As a result of those economic policies, farmers had converted paddy fields into banana
cultivation in late 1980s. They could get an opportunity to earn high income from banana
cultivation than that of the paddy cultivation. However, very recently land area of the
banana plantation is deceasing due to some reasons. Thus the land use pattern of the Uda
Walawa basin has been changed gradually. This study attempts to examine the changes of
land use in the Udawalawe area.
Most of land under banana cultivation is now gradually coverting into paddy flelds.The
reason behind such changes are due to the fertilizer subsidiary givern by the government
only for paddy cultivation. In the meantime, price of rice is also has an upward trend while
price of banana is going in a downward trend during last few months.The main objective
of this study is to examine the future trends of the banana cultivation in the Uda Walawa
basin.
To achieve the set objectives, primary and secondary data were collected. Primary data
were obtained from a questionnaires survey, field observation and focus group interviews.
The secondary data were collected from different government agencies; Mahaweli Block
office -Murawasihena, Institute of legume and Oil seeds research and development-Angunakolapalassa, Uda Walawa Mahaweli head office -Ambilipitiya.
