Heritage of Sri Lanka:

Withering traditions of Chena cultivation

Prof W I Siriweera

As in the rest of the world in Sri Lanka too, the earliest form of agriculture was chena or slash and burn cultivation. It was a system in which the main characteristics were rotation of cultivating plots rather than of crops, clearance by means of fire and short periods of soil occupancy alternating with long fallow periods in order to ensure the periodic exploitation of soil fertility.

The chena farmer chose a patch of forest, secondary or primary, cut down some of the trees, leaving only the larger economically useful ones, cleared the undergrowth with a knife or cutlass and burnt the debris. Generally the only fertilizer the crops received was the ash from the initial burning which provided potash. Burning also heated the surface soil and sterilized it against the organisms responsible for diseases.

The chena cultivation was dependent on rain water and did not require a regular supply of water. Thus the initial adoption of rice (Oryza sativa) in the beginning of the first millennium B.C. did not require any great advance in technology either and dry paddy could be grown in rotating plots. Medieval Sinhala literature refer to rice grown under slash and burn techniques as alvi or goda goyam.

Only when the demographic growth necessitated an improvement in the methods of cultivation, irrigated rice techniques became important. The overall balance however, between chena and irrigated rice agriculture varied, depending on the rainfall and the availability of land, water and man-power.

Apart from paddy, three crops grown in chena plots namely cotton (Gossypium harbacenumi), sugar cane (Saccharum officinarum) and sesame (Sesamum indicum) were important throughout the historical period and three principal cottage industries developed around them. In classical literature, there are frequent references to kapu hen, uk hen and tala hen which mean chena land where cotton, sugar cane and sesame were grown. As only luxury cloth was imported to the island particularly from Eastern India and China even during the heyday of the Rajarata civilization for the use of the royalty and nobility; the island’s requirements of cloth had to be met from within.

Thus cotton (kapu) had to be grown extensively to cater to the weaving industry. Sugar requirements of the people were met by the cultivation of sugar cane (uk). References to machines used for the extraction of juice from sugar cane (uk yanthra) and jaggery made of the juice (uk sakuru) are frequently found in classical literature. As in Mesopotamia, edible oil was obtained mostly from sesame in the ancient Dry Zone and that explains the frequent references to tala hen in the texts.

Kurakkan or finger millet (Elusine coracana) was a key substitute for rice in the Dry Zone throughout the historical period. Hence, chena cultivators grew finger millet as a main cereal crop along with other cereals such as undu (Phaseolus mungo), ma (Vigna cylindraica), mun (Phaseolus aureus), meneri (Paspalam scrobiculatum), aba (Brassica juncea) duru (Cuminum cuminum) and tana (Setaria italica). In these chena cultivations intertillage or mixed cropping was common. The main vegetables grown in them were karabatu (Solenum sp.), tibbatu (Solenum indicum), vambatu (Solenum melongena) alu puhul (Benincasa hispida) and vattakka (Cucurbita maxima).

Even after the abandonment of the Dry Zone civilization in the middle of the thirteenth century, chena cultivation continued throughout centuries and it was the main sustenance of the peasants in isolated pockets of settlement. Leonard Wolf’s Village in the Jungle clearly depicts the nature of the subsistence system in the Dry Zone from the thirteenth century onwards until the colonization programmes began in the 1930s.

In the historical era until about the beginning of the twentieth century, chena land belonged to collective village communities. It was through amicable arrangement by villagers that in each season what portion to be allotted to a person was decided. The selection of locations for chena was done through group consensus and it was confined to the area of authority of the village.

The farming schedule was prepared after discussion with all prospective chena cultivators in the area so that group action could be ensured throughout the period of cultivation. The overall protection of the plots was also ensured through group action as guarding the crop against wild animals was done in turns.

Forest laws

Later, the British government claimed all unoccupied forest land and introduced forest laws. The Forest Ordinances prohibited the clearing of Crown land for chena cultivation without permit.

Chena permits were not given for cultivation of land within 100 yards of a high road; 50 feet of a stream or any area of forest containing full grown trees. The clearing of land liable to erosion or required as protective catchments was also prohibited by a land order in 1940 which precluded from cultivation, land with a slope of over 30 degrees and the tops or whole of forest clad hills. However, such rules and regulations were not enforced due to the shortage of food and Emergency Food Production drive during Second World War.

After independence, the government allowed the use of forest land for purposes of chena cultivation by continuing the system of issuing permits. But the issue of permits was officially terminated in 1981. Yet chena cultivation takes place particularly in the Dry Zone and to a lesser extent in the intermediate zone even at present.

To be continued