Post war development in agriculture sector in Ampara district

Abstract

Agriculture sector plays key role to the development of a country. This sector contributes 12 per cent to GDP in Sri Lanka. Ampara district is situated in coastal region of eastern province in Sri Lanka. This district is predominately agriculture with considerable portion industries. The share of agricultural land accounts for 30.37 per cent of the total land area in the district. However, half of agricultural land is used for paddy cultivation and 70 per cent of the total population depends on this sector for their livelihoods in Ampara district. Since this district was severely affected by ethnic war period, agricultural land was not completely utilized for agricultural production. Thereby, total production and productivity especially in paddy sector were affected during ethnic conflict This study is an attempt to analyze the post war development in agriculture in the district of Ampara. This is a descriptive analysis with the use of primary and secondary data sources. Primary data collected from farmers in the district. Secondary data was collected from Agrarian Service Cantres (ASC) in Amparar district and Planning secretariat division, Government Agent office (Kacheri), Ampara. Finding shows that there was an improvement in total agricultural production and extent of cultivation in the post war scenario in Ampara district. Especially extent of paddy cultivation and production significantly increased. Finding further shows that the social relationship between multi ethnic groups of fanners has also improved.