Conflicting government directives regarding anticipated El Niño climatic threats have caused widespread rainfall damage to paddy crops across several agricultural regions, opposition lawmakers alleged.
Speaking in parlaiment on 22 October, Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) MP Nalin Bandara highlighted that inconsistent guidance issued by local agricultural officers left numerous farmers vulnerable to unseasonal heavy downpours.
He claimed that while certain officers provided accurate technical guidance, others issued flawed instructions, leading farmers to cultivate early only to see their crops submerged.
In response, Deputy Agriculture Minister Namal Karunarathne defended the government's strategy, saying that the decision to advance the Maha cultivation timeline by two weeks was based on weather forecasts supplied by the Meteorology Department and global climate models.
He pointed out that extreme evaporation rates, which have risen by roughly 20 per cent, were rapidly depleting water storage in wells and major reservoirs.
The Deputy Minister noted that advancing the agricultural cycle was necessary to protect water reserves for the upcoming Yala season, when severe drought conditions are expected to peak in January and February.
He added that farmers had been instructed to sow short-term Yala paddy varieties to ensure harvesting could be concluded before the onset of dry weather, while reassuring the assembly that affected cultivators would receive state financial compensation.
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