Total paddy harvest 02 million metric tons this yala season

The Minister of Agriculture and Plantation Industry Mr. Mahinda Amaraweera instructed the Department of Agriculture to provide a forecast report on the paddy yield of the 2024 Yala season.

Accordingly, the Department of Agriculture has submitted a forecast report on the paddy harvest of this yala season.

The target area for paddy cultivation in the 2024 yala season is 540,000 hectares, of which 480,000 hectares have been cultivated. That is 88% progress on the cultivation target.

This year 77% of the total paddy area cultivated in the yala season is paddy. 11% was reported as samba paddy area and 12% as keeri samba paddy area.

According to the amount of cultivated land, there will be a rice harvest of 02 million tons in the 2024 yala season, according to the Department of Agriculture. This harvest is higher than previous harvests. The Department of Agriculture also said that since the last season’s paddy harvest is available in the country, the entire amount of rice required for the country’s consumption this year will be produced within the country.

On average, the annual rice requirement in this country is 2.4 million metric tons. In 2023, the total rice yield from the early and high season is 4.5 million metric tons. It was possible to obtain 03 million metric tons of rice. Also, there is excess rice production in the country.

Out of the areas where rice is grown, harvesting is currently being done in the Eastern and North Central provinces. According to the current information received from those areas, it has been reported that the yield of paddy cultivation is at a higher level compared to the previous seasons. According to the current harvest surveys in Anuradhapura, Mahaweli area, Hambantota, approximately 4.64 MT per hectare has been harvested.

And even though the area of keeri samba paddy cultivated in the past few seasons was very low, 61,000 hectares of keeri samba were planted in this year’s yala season. Therefore, the report given by the Department of Agriculture to the Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Mahinda Amaraweera, has made it clear that the market has been able to supply keeri samba without shortage.

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