Agriculture in Sri Lanka

The earliest agricultural settlements were in the river valleys in the northern and south-eastern plains and the main crop cultivation was paddy under rain-fed conditions.

Thousands of small irrigation tanks of varying sizes and shapes, particularly in the Dry Zone provided water for paddy cultivation.

Coffee lands in the central highlands were replaced by tea (Camellia sinensis) and were promoted from the 1860s onwards.

While tea replaced coffee in the upcountry areas, rubber (Hevea brasiliensis) was planted in the low country.

Large extents of land were cleared and irrigation schemes such as Galoya were initiated to increase food production.

In the 1990s total production was near 3 million metric tonnes of rough rice (paddy), which is about 60 per cent of the national requirement (2013).

In between this tea industry was introduced to the country in 1867 by James Taylor, the British planter who arrived in 1852, in Lool Kandura.

The humidity, cool temperatures, and rainfall in the country's central highlands provide a climate that favors the production of high quality tea.

Around eighty different varieties of fruits and vegetables are grown in Sri Lanka's varied agro-climatic areas.

The well-demarcated low country and dry wet areas are suitable for a variety of tropical fruits and vegetables ranging from green chilli, red onion, pumpkin, bitter gourd, melon, sweet and sour banana types, queen pineapple, papaya, mango, lemon and gherkins.

Certain indigenous yams colloquially named innala (Lecranthus) and kiri ala (Xanthasoma sagittifolium), underwater stems of kohila (Lasia spinosa) and nelum ala (Nymphea lotus) and fruits and pods of perennial crops such as breadfruit, young jak and murunga are foreign exchange spinners of the country.

It is the same with special flavoured Sri Lankan pineapple, mangosteen, ripe jak, avocado, rambutan, starfruit and anoda.

Sri Lanka produces more than 800,000 metric tons of fruits and vegetables annually and exports both fresh and processed varieties to many destinations in the world.

Groundnut is grown mainly in Moneragala, Hambantota, Kurunegala, Anuradhapura, Badulla, Ratnapura and Puttalam districts.

[12] In 2019, Sri Lanka produced 1,499 Metric Tons of cocoa beans (2018: 2,115) and was number 32 among the cocoa-producing countries.

The park is bounded on three sides by the river Mahaweli in the historically important place of Gannoruwa in Kandy and lies at an altitude of 473 m (1550 ft) above sea level in a total area of two square kilometres.

[18] Cardamom, one of the most important spices in the traditional cuisine of Sri Lanka, is mainly grown in the province of Sabaragamuwa around Deniyaya and Rakwana, but 90 to 95% percent of the cardamon which is harvested are consumed in the country itself.