More than 7,700 acres of paddy cultivation have been destroyed in Vavuniya District following severe flooding, according to Sri Lanka’s Department of Agrarian Development, dealing a major blow to farming communities across the Tamil homeland.
Officials said that during the current cultivation season, paddy had been grown across 62,846.41 acres in the district. However, an extraordinary volume of rainfall, amounting to 68 percent of Vavuniya’s annual average, fell within just four days. The intense downpour triggered widespread flooding, causing all irrigation tanks to overflow, breaching 124 tanks and submerging vast stretches of agricultural land.
As floodwaters swept through cultivation areas, entire paddy fields were left waterlogged and destroyed, leaving farmers facing severe uncertainty. Local cultivators warned that the scale of damage has placed their livelihoods in serious jeopardy at a time when many were already struggling with rising input costs and limited state support.
Farmers said that cultivating a single acre of paddy costs up to Rs. 150,000, covering land preparation, seed paddy, fertiliser and pesticides. Many had financed their cultivation through bank loans or by pawning jewellery, leaving them burdened with debt following the loss of their crops.
Although the Sri Lankan government has announced compensation of Rs. 150,000 per hectare for crop losses, affected farmers have urged authorities to release the payments without delay. They warned that prolonged delays would deepen financial distress and threaten their ability to continue farming in the coming seasons.
The destruction in Vavuniya comes amid wider flood-related agricultural losses across the North-East, where extreme weather events have repeatedly exposed the vulnerability of Tamil farming communities.
