Climate-Smart and -Resilient Agricultural Practices in Eastern Dry Zone of Sri Lanka

Abstract

The climate of Sri Lanka is mainly determined by rainfall, temperature, seasonal pressure, wind system, and humidity. Sri Lanka is a tropical island which is highly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change. Climate change in Sri Lanka is mainly characterized by the temporal and spatial variations of temperature as well as rainfall conditions. Sri Lanka is an agricultural country where agriculture is a key contributor to the national economy and the country’s food security. Since the agricultural sector is extremely dependent on natural resources such as water, soil fertility, temperature, and rainfall, it has a higher impact from climate change. Gradual climatic changes including extreme climatic events have already threatened Sri Lankan crop production including rice, livestock production, and the fisheries sector. Two-third of the agricultural areas in Sri Lanka are located in the dry zone, which covers the Northern, Eastern, and South-Eastern parts of the country where the Eastern provincial agriculture contributes significantly to the national agricultural production through both crop and livestock production. The higher degree of sensitivity of the major agricultural crops, livestock, and fisheries to climate change mainly for increased temperature and reduced rainfall and sudden climate vagaries may create both short-term and long-term adverse impacts on food production in eastern dry zone of Sri Lanka. Various mitigation and adaptation strategies for agriculture are adopted by the farming communities against climate change. Many of these climate-smart and -resilient practices are age-old and revamped against the present climate change to adopt in different production systems at different scales and intensities. This chapter describes the importance of eastern dry zone agriculture for the country’s economy and various climate-smart agricultural practices adopted by farming communities against climate change in Earthen dry zone of Sri Lanka including a case study done to investigate the influence of rainfall variation on paddy cultivation in the Eastern dry zone of Sri Lanka.