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Sri Lanka Land Tenure
Modern land tenure policy dates from the Land Development
Ordinance of 1935, which forbade the transfer of crown lands for
purposes of cultivation except to enlarge the landholdings of
near-landless or landless peasants. The intent of this ordinance
was to help small farmers whose livelihood was seen to be at risk
from the exploitation of rich peasants and urban landowners.
In 1958 the Paddy Lands Bill was enacted, mainly to benefit
the tenant farmers of some 160,000 hectares of paddy land. The
bill purported to assist tenants to purchase the land they
worked, to protect them against eviction, and to establish a rent
ceiling at around 25 percent of the crop. It also established
cultivation committees, composed of rice farmers, to assume
general responsibility for rice cultivation in their respective
areas, including the direction and control of minor irrigation
projects. Shortcomings in the law and official indifference in
enforcing the act hampered its effectiveness, and many observers
termed it a failure. In some regions tenants who tried to pay the
lower, official rents were successfully evicted by landlords, and
the old rents, often about 50 percent of the produce, remained in
force. In the 1980s, however, the rent ceiling of 25 percent was
effective in most districts.
The Land Reform Law of 1972 imposed a ceiling of twenty
hectares on privately owned land and sought to distribute lands
in excess of the ceiling for the benefit of landless peasants.
Because both land owned by public companies and paddy lands under
ten hectares in extent were exempted from the ceiling, a
considerable area that would otherwise have been available for
distribution did not come under the purview of the legislation.
Between 1972 and 1974, the Land Reform Commission took over
nearly 228,000 hectares, one-third of which was forest and most
of the rest planted with tea, rubber, or coconut. Few rice
paddies were affected because nearly 95 percent of them were
below the ceiling limit. Very little of the land acquired by the
government was transferred to individuals. Most was turned over
to various government agencies or to cooperative organizations,
such as the Up-Country Co-operative Estates Development Board.
The Land Reform Law of 1972 applied only to holdings of
individuals. It left untouched the plantations owned by
joint-stock companies, many of them British. In 1975 the Land
Reform (Amendment) Law brought these estates under state control.
Over 169,000 hectares comprising 395 estates were taken over
under this legislation. Most of this land was planted with tea
and rubber. As a result, about two-thirds of land cultivated with
tea was placed in the state sector. The respective proportions
for rubber and coconut were 32 and 10 percent. The government
paid some compensation to the owners of land taken over under
both the 1972 and 1975 laws. In early 1988, the state-owned
plantations were managed by one of two types of entities, the
Janatha Estates Development Board, or the Sri Lanka State
Plantation Corporation.
Data as of October 1988
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