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Sri Lanka Land Use
Although there have been periodic agricultural censuses, they
were limited in purpose and did not provide an overall picture of
land use. In 1961, however, a survey of the use of the island's
physical resources was compiled based on a 1956 aerial
photographic survey of the entire country. The survey indicated
that, of the country's total area of nearly 66 million hectares,
29 percent was under permanent cultivation, just over 15 percent
under chena cultivation, 44 percent under forest cover,
and about 6 percent under various types of grasses. Nearly 33,000
hectares consisted of swamp and marshlands, and about 63,000
hectares, or 1 percent, unused land. Just over 3 percent of the
island's surface was covered by water. Of the total area,
approximately 23 percent was in the wet zone, about 63 percent in
the dry zone, and the balance lay in an area that the survey
labeled "intermediate," as it had characteristics of both zones.
Of the land under permanent cultivation in 1961, which
included cropland, land under plantation, and homestead gardens,
the survey indicated that some 75 percent was in the wet and
intermediate zones and about 25 percent was in the dry zone.
Chena cultivation, on the other hand, was predominantly in
the dry zone, as were the grass, scrub, and forestlands. Although
forest covered almost half the country, only about 0.2 percent
and 3.1 percent of the forests were characterized as of high and
intermediate yield, respectively. The study further indicated
that approximately 70 percent of the land in the wet zone was
under permanent cultivation, whereas in the dry zone under 12
percent was being cultivated on a permanent basis.
Since 1961 irrigation has enabled a much greater proportion
of land in the dry zone to be cultivated and in 1978 it was
estimated that nearly one-third of the country's dry-zone area
was under permanent cultivation
(see
fig. 8). This proportion
increased in the 1980s, when lands irrigated by the Accelerated
Mahaweli Program were added to the total. As a result, the
proportion of forestland declined and was estimated at just under
40 percent in 1987.
Although the forests had few high-yield timber stands, many
areas suffered from deforestation because of the heavy demand for
firewood in the 1980s. In 1987 it was estimated that 94 percent
of households used firewood for cooking. Scarcities of firewood
led to price increases well above the general level of inflation
in the 1980s.
Data as of October 1988
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