Bananas given boost

Raja Waidyasekera, Tissamaharama Special Corr.

The cultivation of bananas in Uda Walawa area was given a boost with two objectives. The two reasons are to reduce the demand for irrigation water to enable further expansion of the left bank command and to increase participating farming community, income.

While the area under banana cultivation has steadily increased, water use has shown little measurable reduction and some disputes are becoming evident. The banana cultivation at the head end areas of the canal command requires irrigation release outside the established paddy cultivation seasons.

This is leading to two areas of dispute between up stream banana cultivators and downstream paddy cultivators who believe banana cultivation is limiting water availability for paddy.

Also there is a concern that banana cultivators are not managing irrigation water effectively, and are not saving water.