2. THE PROJECT AREA AND ENVIRONMENT

2.1 Location and access

2. 1.1. The project area is situated in the Kala Oya basin in Anuradhapura District. The project area covering 217 square miles is located between Kandalama reservoir and Rajangana Reservoir with Kalawewa forming the main storage reservoir in the development. The road network inside the project area is fairly extensive on the right bank of the Kala Oya but, poor on the left bank. Two railways, from Colombo to Jaffna and to Batticaloa - Trincomalee, pass through the area here there are presently 4 railway stations. The bulk of (lie trade of the project area is with Colombo.

2.2 Population, employment and conditions of living

2. 2. 1 The total population in the area including those in stages I is around 115,000 inhabitants, of whom 50,000 live in the project area. The number of males above 16 is 19,000. The population has been growing at 4.3 percent per year of which 1.15 percent is attributed to a positive migratory balance.

2. 2. 2 Only 8 percent of the heads of families including those in existing schemes in Stage I have solely non-agricultural activities. Another 18 percent are engaged in both agricultural and non-agricultural occupations. 36 percent work only on their farms, 28 percent work both on their farm and as hired labour, whereas only 1 percent works solely as hired labour. The occupational status of the remainder is not well defined.

2. 2. 3 The actual employment level in the area is low, being about 200 working days per household or 75 days per worker per year. In the poorest areas it is even 20 percent lower. This low level is primarily due to the present cropping calendar and irrigation availabilities. It would he possible to raise this level with an assured water supply for irrigation during the dry season.

2. 2. 4 The settlements in the area including those in Stage I can be divided into 4 major categories: Purana Villages with their village tank, colonization schemes, new villages mostly encroached on state land and urban centers located on the fringes of the project area. The main urban centre is at Kekirawa. In the settlements in Stage I 50% are purana villages. 20% are new villages and 30%, colonization schemes, while in the Stage II area 85% are purana Villages and I 15% new villages.

2. 2. 5 Conditions of life in the area are generally poor, due to low incomes, educational standards are low and medical facilities poor. The colonists, however, have a comparatively high standard of living.

2.3 Climate

2. 3. 1 The project area benefits from the rainfall of only one monsoon season, and receives about seventy percent of’ its total 60 inches annual rainfall during the Maha season. As a result - the mean annual rainfall distribution shows a bi-modal pattern with two dry seasons; one in February - March which is short, and other from June to September which is long and pronounced. Monthly mean temperatures range from 73º to 89º F.

2.3. 2 Leaching conditions of the soil prevail during the wet season. Surface sheet erosion occurs during storms. upward movement from shallow water tables is observed during the dry season. There are no cropping limitations due to temperature except for temperate climate vegetables, but adverse rainfall and relative humidity conditions are encountered during the wet Season for some crops at certain stages of growth. Irrigation is necessary for all crops during the semi-dry and dry seasons. Complementary irrigation is needed during the wet season because of the irregular distribution of rainfall.

2.4 Topography and Land Classification

2. 4. 1 The project lies within the first peneplain of Sri Lanka. It is gently undulating with relatively shallow minor valleys delimiting small catchments basins. Ridges are gravely or stony. Slopes average 1 to 5 percent. Deeper river valleys such as the Kala Oya have incised stream channels and drain all the affluent valleys. The substratum has an average depth of 30 to 40 feet above bedrock.

2. 4. 2 The semi-detailed land classification of the project area gives the following distribution of the respective land classes:

Land Classes

Unit: Acres

Gross
Fruit Not Non Dwell- land
Irrigable Land Gar- Coin- Tanks irriga- ing classifi

dens mended ble areas caton area

Class 2 3 4R Total 4F 5H 5ta+ 6

(Paddy) Tanks

Extent 49300 11200 34000 94,500 1,100 26,700 9,900 8,800 400 145,000

Source: Land Use Division

2. 4. 3 Reddish Brown Earth type soils (RBE) cover about 60 percent of the area, Low Humic Gley soils (1.110) 35 percent, the remainder being alluvial soils. They are developed on material derived from the underlying weathered metamorphic rocks and are separated from the decomposing rock by a gravely sandy clay loam layer 2 to 4 fret below the surface.

2. 4. 4 Mottled horizons in the reddish brown earths correspond to difficult soil drainage conditions caused by low porosity of the soil and groundwater level build-up which results in severe water-logging. Drainage becomes even more difficult in the LUG soils at the bottom of the valleys. Surface drainage to avoid erosion should be envisaged on most of class 2 and 3. Sub-surface drainage is necessary on three fourths of class 2 land.

2. 4. 5 Small extents of saline and alkaline phases can be delineated and are related to saline ground water (4 to 5 gins per litre). Salinity occurs particularly in LUG soils, mostly found in the lower landscape of the project area. Exchangeable sodium can be such that the Na/T ratio exceeds 10 for some alkaline and saline phases of LHG soils.

2. 4. 6 The RBE soils have narrow range of available moisture between 6 and 9 percent. The development of the root system and the availability of moisture for the plant growth may be limited on compact soils with rather low porosity. Average infiltration is between 1.5 and 3 inches/hour for deep RB1E soils, 10 to 20 inches/hour for the gravely phases and less than I .5 to 2 inches/hour in LHG soils.

2. 4. 7 Land grading will be required on class 2 land with a slope from 1.5 to 3 percent and on class 3 land with slopes above 3 percent. Land leveling will be required for flooded paddy fields on slopes above 0.5 percent. Brushwood and forests cover about 80% of the irrigable area i.e. 57,600 acres of class 2 and I lands and 18,500 acres of class 4R land of which 80% is in brushwood and the remainder in forest

5 Hydrological conditions

2. 5. 1 The project area contains four major irrigation reservoirs led by the Kala Oya and its main tributaries. The physical feature of the major irrigation schemes in the project area are as follows

Full
Supply Gross Active Farm Area - Acres
Reservoir level capacity capacity
M..S.L. Ac. ft. Ac. ft. Stage I Stage II

Kandalama 578.0 27,400 23,800 4,000 14.000

Kalawewa .. 424.0 100,000 96,800
Maha lluppallama .. 362.3 4,500 4,000 - 13,000 57,000
Kattiyawa .. 309.7 2,800 2,600

Nachchaduwa .. 333.6 45,300 44,000
Nuwara Wewa .. 286.8 36,1(X) 11,200 10,000
Basawakkulama .. 280.5 1,800 1,900
Tisawewa . . .. 289.3 2.9(W) 2,900

Usgala

Siyambalangamuwa . 286.5 22,000 20,000 1,500

Rajangana .. .. 224.0 81,600 76,600 17,000

Angamuwa . . . . 2l1.0 12.800 10,400

______ ______ _______ ______ ______
337,.200 315.000 45,.500 71,.000

The project area of Stage II also contains over 200 small irrigation reservoirs. called village tanks of average capacity 100 ac. ft. They are replenished by local minor streams While the major irrigation schemes provide water both for the Maha Season and for a restricted extent during the Yala Season, the village tanks provide water only for the Maha Season. Even during the Maha Season, the cultivation tinder village tanks is precarious due to the poor reliability of the NE Monsoonal rains.

The tanks themselves are shallow and have large water spreads compared to the irrigated area. The submerged area is over 8,000 acres of arable land while the irrigated area is only about 13,000 acres.

Hence, in the canal and farm layout of the project area, only which are useful in canal regulation or as a source of domestic waiter supply will be retained while the majority of tanks will be breached and their tank beds converted to rice fields. The quality of irrigation water is fairly good anti its conductivity varies between 0.4 and 0.8 mmhos/cm.

2.6 Present land use and production patterns

The project area includes about 16,000 acres of paddy fields rainfed or irrigated front small village tanks. About 25 percent of these fields are unused mainly because of lack of water. About 60 percent are cultivated in Maha and 19 percent in Yala. The percentage of crop failure is around 12 percent.

Upland crops cover an area close to 17,000 acres comprising of 22 percent of fruit and coconut trees, 15 percent of garden crops and 63 percent of shifting cultivation.

Subsistent farming is prevalent within the area. However, exchange in cash amount to 80 percent of the total value of agricultural production. Average net agricultural income per farm is about Rs. 1,500/- per year.

Animal breeding. in practiced by a minority of families, 27 percent of’ them have cattle and less than 9 percent have buffaloes. The average herd per tamely owning animals as around 9 heads including calves. Animal husbandry is poor. Cattle are allowed to wander around in search of forage and animal the is a problem. Buffaloes ate fed on paddy fallows where the growth of grass is benefited from a shallow water table.

Uplands are hand cultivated. Roughly hall the paddy area is prepared by tractors and the oilier hall is worked with draught buffaloes. The yields or paddy vary Iron less than 20 to inure than 80 bushels per acre.

Forestry activities are significant in toe area. Fishing in irrigating tanks not well thought of in most of the village communities. The potential fish production scorns presently under use and the actual production amounts only to about I percent of the total value oh agricultural production of the area.

The following Table gives the present land use pattern

Land List Pattern

	Paddy Land	Coco nut Planta- tions	Home Garden area	Exist- Settle ment- area	Brush Wood & Chena	Brush Wood land	Forest land	Rocky land	Water Surface & stream	Total
Stage I area Ac. Percent	38,127 47.5	5,684 7.1	4,139 5.1	4,612 5.7	10,512 13.1	9,717 12.1	1,056 1.3	806 1.0	5,567 6.9	80,220 100.0
Stage II Area Ac. Percent	19,763 13.6	1,536 1.0	712 0.5	3,933 2.7	31,297 22.0	52,552 36.3	24,650 17.0		9,947 6.9	145,000 100.0

2.7 land distribution and tenure

2. 7. 1 Summarized distribution of land owners and land operation pattern is as follows

Unit: Percent of land

Stage I area Operated by the owner Worked by laborers Rented Unused Stage II area Operated by the owner Worked by Labourers Rented Unused	Paddy Land	Upland	Chena Land	Total Land
	72.4 2.1 24.0 1.5 51.5 2.0 21.5 25.0	89.5 2.2 3.2 5.1 84.5 2.0 2.5 11.0	89.3 0.7 4.0 6.0 97.0 1.0 1.0 1.0	79.3 2.0 15.5 3.0 75.0 2.0 7.5 15.5

urce: Socio-Agro-Economic Survey MOB 1971

2. 7. 2 Fragmentation is quite typical of paddy land whereas there is almost none on highlands and chena parcels. 50 percent of paddy parcels are under one quarter of an acre and

about 80 percent are under half an acre. Owners within the project area have on an average four parcels each, scattered far and wide and under different village tanks. People owning a large number of blocks are more willing to consolidate than the others who fear that the more powerful villagers might then appropriate to themselves the more fertile lands. Fragmentation will have to be carefully considered when resettling the undeveloped part of the project area.

2.7.3 The Paddy lands Act of I 958 was intended to provide for the security of tenure of tenant cultivators and to specify the rents payable to landlords. Because landlords provide facilities such as loans with no security and because of the disunity among the farmers. The power and authority of landlords over their tenants have yet remained almost unbated

2.7.4 The approximate encroachment situation at the end of 1971 is given below

Encroachments

Units :Acres

Paddy Highland Chena Total

Land

Non-urban areas 1,398 2,806 7,734 11,938

Kekirawa area .. .. 120 300 596 1,016