The decision on when water will begin to be issued for the Maha season is to be announced on Friday, the Department of Agriculture has said, according to NewsFirst.
Director General of Agriculture Dr. Thushara Wickramarachchi said the discussion is being held with the Deputy Minister of Agriculture, ministry officials and representatives of all farmer organisations. Both the start and end dates of the season are to be discussed and finalised.
Why the date matters this year
Maha is the main cultivation season, run on the northeast monsoon from roughly September through March, and the date water is released from the reservoirs sets the planting calendar for the whole country.
It is being fixed against an unusually poor water position. On 13 September the country’s 74 major reservoirs held 33.6 percent of capacity, as the Irrigation Department reported — with the east worst affected and the largest reservoir of all down to 17.6 percent.
Forecasters have put odds above 90 percent on the strongest El Niño in 75 years by year-end, and the government responded in August by bringing the Maha season forward by about two weeks. The Department has also pushed growers toward short-duration paddy varieties, with 160,000 people already affected and more than 78,000 reported to have lost livelihoods.
Water issue dates are the lever that matters most in that situation. Releasing early lets farmers plant into whatever rain the monsoon delivers, but draws down storage that may not be replaced; releasing late protects storage at the cost of pushing the harvest toward the dry months at the far end.
The farmers’ position
The consultation comes after a season of visible discontent. Farmers in Hingurakgoda staged a rooftop protest into a second day earlier this month, demanding the government set a guaranteed paddy price. That the Department is convening all farmer organisations for this decision, rather than announcing it, is itself a response to that pressure.
Not reported
NewsFirst does not name the Deputy Minister of Agriculture, say where the meeting is being held, or give the dates under consideration. It does not say whether a single national date is being set or separate dates for individual schemes and river basins — which is how water issue is normally managed.
It gives no extent target for the season, no indication of whether the area to be cultivated is being cut in response to storage levels, and no position from the Mahaweli Authority or the Irrigation Department, both of which control the releases. Nor does it say what the farmer organisations are asking for.
No other verified newsroom had carried the announcement at the time of writing.
