Sri Lanka Has A Rice Surplus Of 700,000 Tonnes, No Necessity To Import
Shakila Ifham
September 28, 2023
The country has accumulated a surplus of approximately 700,000 tonnes of rice, thus, there is no need to import rice, the Department of Agriculture said yesterday.
The Department revealed the favourable situation when Agriculture Minister Mahinda Amaraweera and senior officials of the Ministry inquired about existing rice and paddy stocks as a food review should be done in the country.
Senior officials of the Department of Agriculture, said that more than 800,000 hectares of paddy fields had been cultivated in the last (2022/23) Maha season. Also, the amount of paddy cultivated in this year’s yala season concluded last month was 500,300 hectares.
Accordingly, 1.3 million hectares of paddy fields have been cultivated.
Considering the paddy harvest, a yield of 3.5 to 05 tonnes has been obtained from one hectare. A harvest of 07 to 11 tonnes has also been obtained in several districts.
Average yield of paddy from one hectare can be estimated at four tonnes.
Total paddy harvest of the last Maha season and this year’s Yala season is 5.2 million tonnes. The amount of rice that can be produced is 3.1 million tonnes.
The monthly requirement of rice in this country is 200,000 tonnes. And the annual requirement of rice is 2.4 million tonnes. Accordingly, the Department of Agriculture emphasized that there is a surplus of 700,000 tonnes of rice in the country.
The Agriculture Department officials also emphasized that the amount of rice is sufficient until the harvesting of the current Maha season by March next year and there is no need to import rice.
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