Towards Sustainable Management of Chena/Unirrigated Highland Cultivation in

Introduction lowlands and the dry zone hill Dr.M.U.A. Tennakoon country of Sri Lanka too, when the Former Executive Director, his paper attempts to analyse country's population density was Central Bank of Sri Lanka, chena cultivation in Sri low. It is still being practised in Sri Presently, Visiting Research TLanka from its historical Lanka as chena cultivation which Fellow, Hector Kobbekaduwa evolution as shifting cultivation to is a shifting form of agriculture Agrarian Research and the present-day stabilised highland where once a patch of forest is Training Institute, Colombo. farming, aiming at making chosen, slashed it using ordinary recommendations for more implements (axes, bill-hooks sustainable land management in knives, etc.), debris are burnt and chenas. It is divided into five parts. the bared thin soil veneer is and g) the ability to rotate crops Part I explains what the chena scratched and seeds are sown from season to season as required. cultivation is and traces its during two or three seasons the The origin of chana cultivation can evolution and distribution, before most. With the progressive weed be traced back to the tail-end of the dealing with the types of chenas, infestation and the decline in soil Iron Age (1000 -500 B.C.) in Sri methods of farming and the fertility, the land is abandoned in Lanka, where the man has learnt first to use crude iron implements combinations of crops grown to favour of yet another patch of forest which were further improved withstand rainfall vagaries seeking for a fresh clearing for cultivation. enough subsequently to slash or food security in Part II. Then, Part When the population pressure on hack bushes and plants of soft III will address the government land was low, it took 10 to 15 years wood types to clear tiny patches of chena policy, physical expansion of or more to reopen a rejuvenated land. With the continued chenas as a supplementation of forest in an abandoned old chena improvement of such iron tools, by wetland rice production down the site for the cultivation of a new 400 B.C. (Deraniyagala 1992), the ages, ensuring food security, chena. With the reduction of forest hunter-gatherers were able to cut notably during the late nineteenth extents available for clearing, some even the tough hard-wooded trees and twentieth centuries. The of the old chenas, without in the dry zone forest to clear subsequent transformation of the abandonment, have been extents of forest land, sufficient for shifting nature of chena cultivation transformed in to a type of semi­ a family for chena cultivation into a form of stabilised upland permanent or permanent upland • (Panabokke, 2009). highland farming (UHF) with least highland farms (UHFs). care for the forest, soil and environment leading to The ancient hunter-gatherers would The subsistence and have temporarily stayed closer to a undesirable consequences in land supplementary advantages of this water hole - a rudimentary pond - management will be discussed in method of cultivation include: a) its because, like food, water was a life- Part IV. Finally, as a solution to the ability to provide food early and giver to them. They may have hunted dilemma faced by the government, spread over a long time; b) its animals, gathered edible roots, that is, whether to allow or not to significance in raising food from fruits and nuts within the periphery allow UHF, specific highland cultivation; c) its low cost of a limited forest range and when recommendations for the evolution of production; d) simplicity and the supplies dwindled there, due to of a sustainable land management affordability of its technology in natural causes or exhausted due use; e) its ability to adjust to a are made in Part V. to over exploitation of food variable rainfall environment where resources, they may have shifted Part I at least some crops are able to to yet another once familiar forest thrive and able to provide food environment also with a source of Slash and burn method of highland depending on the moisture needs water to meet their domestic food farming which once remained of the different crops; f) low labour and water needs. As hunter- widespread throughout the humid inputs required notably when labour gatherers,' they may have realised Tropics in Latin America, Africa and inputs are concurrently required for Asia (Gourou, 1953) was widely that their food leftovers of nuts, wetland rice farming elsewhere; practised mostly in the dry zone seeds and roots casually thrown

10 Economic Review: April/ May 2010 — into the nearby garbage heaps have settlement in association with 'subsistence affluence' with a germinated, rooted, grew up with reliable water storages, and it may dominancy over chena cultivation, the passage of time and fruited not have taken a very long time to making it only a supplementary adding some amounts of food to evolve a wetland rice cultivation source of food. their food-basket. This would have system downstream of those water convinced them that wild food storages with the use of simple Part II plants can be domesticated adding gravity-guided irrigation during the In the words of B.H.Farmer (1957), food to their food-basket collected dry spells, in addition to the already though "it cannot be doubted that in the wild. familiar chena cultivation. chena cultivation dates from ancient times," our chronicles and This conviction would have lead that rice cultivation was The notion inscriptions do not throw a clear them to take to orderly growing of introduced to Sri Lanka only by the light on this mode of cultivation such wild roots, grain-seeds and Aryan settlers who arrived here, during the Anuradhapura and fruit plants or seeds in small has been put into serious Polonnaruwa periods. It was only patches of forest cleared, closer to challenge, emphasising that even during the Dambadeniya period of where they temporarily camped. irrigated rice cultivation prevailed our medieval history, that, some When food supply from the grown in Sri Lanka before the advent of reference to chena cultivation has plants and seeds became more the Aryans. Supporting this reliable than uncertain collection been made by the monk-author of argument, Panabokke (2009) says, of wild food, these hunter- Saddharmaratanavaliya, a literary "it should be emphasised that gatherers would have gradually work.Thereafter, no known wetland rice cultivation in Its shifted to a rudimentary form of authentic references had been early form was purely an farming for which clearing small made to chena cultivation until the indigenous development and patches of land was necessary. British administration firmly not one introduced by early With the passage of time, the role established here in the early Aryan settlers as is often stated of that rudimentary farming might nineteenth century. by some historians and have become the principal source scholars". It may also be possible of food, but some hunting and It was certainly under the British that different varieties of rice were gathering may have continued as administration that proper secondary sources of food grown in highland chenas and in documentation of chena cultivation procurement. wetlands. Even today, el vee is practices have come into regarded as a variety of rain-fed existence.The British writers such highland paddy. This faming would have as Tennent (1859) and Forbes necessitated periods of longer stays (1840) and administrators of the near the rudimentary ponds that It could be seen in the evolution North Central Province like they camped and that would also process described above, that even R.W.levers (1899) have made many have necessitated improvement of before the Christian Era an authentic records on chena those rudimentary ponds to ensure advanced human civilisation cultivation in their diaries which more assured supplies of water to thrived in this country based on they preserved very carefully, meet their domestic needs permanent settlements besides levers, published his authentic uninterruptedly. Thus, Panabokke tank storages, being dependant on study of Manual of the North (2009) contends that by the second wetland rice farming and chena Central Province in 1899, having century B.C. the early prototype of cultivation for food security. The thoroughly studied the province the small village tanks evolved from uniqueness of chena cultivation in with painstaking field work these rudimentary pond Sri Lanka is that, unlike in other undertaken almost over a decade, improvements, and he further countries in the humid Tropics, which refers to many aspects of states that, "at this stage of there is a harmonious blend of both chena cultivation in the north evolution, it should be very clearly chena and wetland rice farming central dry zone. The British recognised that chena cultivation evolved by the early inhabitants of Government Agents' diaries with kurakkan [Eleucine coracana,) a permanent village settlements. In maintained in the Anuradhapura crop of antiquity, had been the the early period of hunter-gatherers Kachcheri, Final Village Plans main cereal component* in their transforming themselves into a (FVPP) prepared and the numerous farming. The significance of the farming livelihood, chena petitions filed by the villagers evolution of small tanks from cultivation seems to have been the in respect of their seeking rudimentary ponds and chena dominant food supplier. With permission to clear forest patches cultivation is that there evolved a subsequent irrigation development, for chena cultivation,complaints on system of more permanent wetland rice farming achieved a losses caused to the cultivation by 11 Economic Review: April/ May 2010 rampaging wild animals, drought kepeem, that is, pruning or lopping environment all round, pausing effects on chenas, methods of off the young tree-head branches serious threats to human forest clearing for chena cultivation each of the size of a human arm at survival have been retold by Government the eye level. The third and the final Agents capturing the information is the gas kandubema, that is, Land Preparation and Crop provided to them by their lopping off the branches of tall Selection Adjustment to subordinate officers {koralas, Tulana trees to maximise the receipt of Rainfall Vagaries Headmen and vel vidanes) at regional direct sunlight to invigorate the crop and village levels in their mundane growth. A little could have been done by the administrative functions are people to increase the amount of dependable sources of information Once a chena cultivated is rainfall or the number of rainfall on chena cultivation abandoned at the end of a single events (Benites and Castellanos, season of cultivation or two or three 2003). Chena cultivators' focus, Types of Chenas seasons of cultivation the most, therefore, had been on improving the lopped off tree branches and the capture of water in the soil by There are taxonomical pruned bush-heads soon begin to imperfections and even confusions cultivation methods inducing the sprout and re-grow fast along with in respect of the subject, chena rainwater to enter into the surface a newly-emerging undergrowth of cultivation. One would find that the soil first and then to the sub-soil chena cultivators liberally use any small plants to gradually restore making the moisture retention one of the names in Table 1 the original forest status in a few period in soil longer and use that consistently or interchangeably. years. While these vegetation moisture efficiently in chena growths soon begin to protect the cultivation. These they had to do Methods of Land Clearing top soil from soil erosion and enrich amidst many uncertainties humus in it with leaf falls of the perceived, which demanded many The traditional chena land clearing re-growing trees over the years adjustments to cope with them. remained one of the most enhancing soil moisture retention environment-friendly system to Chena cultivators knew that they that facilitate the grown of ensure the sustainability of forest, had to live with many vagaries of vegetation. It should strictly be soil and humans. There was a rainfall uncertainties, such as, too kept in mind that where such distinct three-tier forest felling. excessive rain, too little rain at time-tested careful land First is the mul val keteema, times, non-arrival of it in time, meaning slashing all plants of the clearance methods are ignored, uneven distribution of received rain size of the tore of a human foot at as we shall see later, the over space and time or even total the ground level which are most consequences have lead to the failure of it. The more the probably of two to three years of age. ruination of vegetation, causing adjustments that they are able to The second is the athdanduwawe serious damages to the make to these uncertainties in

Table 1: Varying Chena Taxonomy

Based on seasonality Maha hen (Main season's chenas) Yal hen (Minor or Yala season's chenas

Based on age Nava deli hen (newly-burnt chenas) Kanatu hen (second or third season's aged chenas)

Based on dominant Kurakkan hen (kurakkan dominant), aba Tala hen (gingerly dominant during the Yala Hen (mustard dominant) and vee hen crop sown or Minor season of cultivation (highland paddy dominant)

Based on method of Thani hen (isolated chenas), Yaya hen Thani hen (isolated chenas during the minor land clearance (individually operated plots but tightly season for gingerly cultivation only)' Yaya hen adjacent to one another) and Mulketa (individually operated plots but tightly hen (wheel chenas) adjacent to one another during the Yala or Minor cultivation season)

Based on the type of Mukolan hen (chenas in high and dense Landu kele hen (cleared in secondary or scrub forest cleared forest cleared to cultivate mainly jungles during the Yala or Minor) season to kurakkan and mustard during the Maha cultivate gingerly season

Note: For more details see, .Tennakoon,(l964, 1974, and 1993) and Leach (1961).They both describe with clear diagrammatic representations the advantages of yaya hen and mulketa hen (wheel chenasj particulary in periphery fencing and crop watching

12 Economic Review; April/ May 2010 their chena cultivation regime, the Part III the State Counsellor for greater would have been, and will Anuradhapura District, blasted his be, their success. What are these Chenas' Supplementation of opponents in the Council itself by adjustments? Wetland Rice Cultivation yelling, 'don't be anti- kurakkan'(Stockdale,1926), Though chena cultivation was the To begin with, immediately after inferring Lne importance of chena fore-runner of initiating permanent burning the slashed vegetation cultivation at times of food crisis settlements as set out in Part I they collect the remaining debris due to drought. Still later due to above, from about the fourth or the after burning and make low war time difficulties in importing third century B.C., with the gradual stockpiles of them as ridges across food or foreign exchange shortages transformation of rudimentary the likely flows of water once it to import food, the successive natural ponds into tanks, and then rains by which means sheet erosion governments did not mind villagers using them as prototypes for the in burnt and bared land will be cultivating chenas. At such critical construction of the later-day large reduced in the cases of newly-burnt times, the government quietly irrigation reservoirs, notably since (nava deli ) chenas. In sowing preferred to 'see no evil, hear no the fourth century A.C. the seeds they scratch one or two evil and speak no evil* of chena eminence of irrigated wetland rice inches of bare surface soil only to cultivation, because at such critical cultivation had risen steadily in cover the seeds. This would not times, chena cultivation has come the country. However, there is no allow excessive evaporation of to the rescue of the government and reason to believe that chena moisture from the soil. Some debris the people in supplying food cultivation was abandoned because will be even allowed to remain (Brohier, 1975). Hence, chena as a civilisation advances, always strewn over the sown surface so cultivation continued unabated to the demand for a food diversity that rain fallen after sowing slow the twenty-first century as well. down free flow of water. This arises, and for that diversity, a food enables a greater penetration of source in the past would have been Other Clamouring Needs for water into the soil causing more the chenas where a multitude of Chena cultivation moisture retention, facilitating a food items were grown. This form healthy crop growth. In sowing a of agriculture too remained as a The gradual population increase chena for the second or third time, crop insurance against the failure both in the dry zone lowlands and the remains of uprooted or scraped of small tank irrigated wetland rice in the mountainous hill country dry dry grasses are strewn over the cultivation amidst unpredictable zone amidst extremely limited sown surface with the same rainfall failures in some seasons irrigable extents and there emerged objective. or years, denying adequate tank an acute land-hunger. Amidst the storage for rice field irrigation custom of dividing one's irrigable providing food adequately. lands equally among his children, More than these land preparation 'land parcelisation' continued and sowing practices, it is the Re-emergence of the generation after generation, and in 'game-plan' strategy that the chena Significance of Chenas since the the process, either the inherited cultivators adapt to defend Nineteenth Century extents became inadequate to raise themselves against the threats of the needed family food or rainfall vagaries that they expect Ever since the chena became a completely turned to be landless but do not know when they strike. subject of much reference under after selling those tiny parcels of That is, sowing a mix of crops - the British administration in the irrigable land inherited, forcing some more water loving (e.g., early nineteenth century when all them to cultivate chenas for food mustard), some drought resistant the uncultivated lands, natural supplementation or for total food (e.g., kurakkan) and some requiring forests, etc. were considered Crown dependence. Thus, the cultivation moderate rainfalls - so that under property under the Waste Land of chenas came to be for any erratic rainfall behaviour and Ordinance of 1840 and more so 'subsistence affluence* to those under any amount of water that it throughout the twentieth century, who had some irrigable land for gives, a harvest is received avoiding the government's chena policy ever wetland rice cultivation and of a total crop failure unless in an continued to be ambiguous (Leach 'near total subsistence' for those extreme event of a prolonged severe 1961, Brohier,1975). Though the who had no irrigable land holdings drought. This strategy has indeed policies were more attuned against for rice cultivation. helped the subsistent chena chena cultivation, there were staunch chena defender- cultivators, whose risk taking The increased pressure on forest administrators. Once in the 1920s propensity is low, to have their food land for chena cultivation caused in the State Council Mr. Freeman, security in place (Tennakoon, 1974). an accelerated forest denudation, Economic Review: April/ May 2010 13 soil erosion and depletion, drying practices referred to above. The iv) terracing; of forest water sources, and there nastiest land preparation forms are v) use of burnt vegetation debris, by, increasing aridity in the total more ubiquitous in the dry zone uprooted or cut grasses dried to environment. This became more lowlands rather than in the hill either heap as contour ridges or to pronounced by the 1970s when the country dry zone. In the dry zone mix with earth and reinforce earth food imports had to be severely lowlands in particular, deep soil contour ridges; curtailed amidst a world food crisis 'rippers' such as two-wheel and and foreign exchange restrictions four-wheel tractors are used to vi) shallow sowing - that is locally prevailed. Hence, there was plough and harrow, because of scratching the thin veneer of an unprecedented rush and which deep-seated coarse soils surface soil sufficient to burry competition to grow more food in raised on to the surface, deep- grain seeds; chenas. In this scramble for chena burring humus contained in the vii) contour planting; cultivation, the time-tested forest thin veneer of surface soil reducing clearing and land management surface soil fertility, demanding viii) growing deep-rooting hardy systems with the three-tier chemical fertiliser application for grasses or driving sticks down at vegetation clearing for chena its enrichment. It has also the lower toe of an earth ridge to cultivation too lost its careful land accelerated surface soil erosion reinforce its strength; management objectives. and silt accumulation in the nearby ix) construction of an upper contour small village tanks, reducing their drain, outside a UHF to divert water It was during the 1970s that chena water storages, eventually flows from the upper contour to the cultivation's food supplementary threatening irrigated wetland rice sideways of that UHF in a lower role changed into a commercial cultivation as well. Because of contour; role, tempting those who once had chemical fertiliser application, x) practise land conservation no interest in chena cultivation to yields have risen. But, the over methods specifically recommended rush to whatever and wherever application of chemical may not be to a particular situation; and available forests in the dry zone to the long-term solution for clear forest indiscriminately cutting successful soil management. Tank xi) planting permanent tree crops down any or every standing plant water pollution is a serious health enabling them to anchor the surface almost completely and grow hazard faced by the villagers. The and sub-surface soils properly, and commercially lucrative crops such dry zone highland farmers generally thereby prevent earth slips and as chillies in demand in the remain indifferent to them though large-scale damage to soil. domestic market. They neither had they have some awareness of the the knowledge nor the regard for the impending disasters. Most of these methods used in hill time-tested three-tier forest slopes are not applicable to UHFs in flat or undulating dry zone clearing leading to careful land and The situation is different in the lowlands. But, those applicable forest management They were also cases of the chena cultivators in ones and new ones befitting to the aided and counselled by the timber the hill slopes of the hill county dry lowland environments need to be wheeler-dealers and those who zone. They are aware of the dangers understood and used, to revive were in dire need of fuel wood for of soil erosion and soil degradation traditional methods to minimise commercial activities such as brick likely to cause in reckless farming the current devastating damages and tile making. This has caused a in the hill slopes. In a field survey caused in lowland UHFs. ruination of the natural vegetation. of UHF in the Badulla District (Tennakoon,1993) it was revealed Part IV Part V that as many as 29 precautionary Chena Transformation measures of soil fertility and soil The lack of sure-footedness in moisture protection have been evolving a chena policy since the The majority of the present-day taken by the chena cultivators, early nineteenth century hobbled chena cultivators have no chances which were crystallised into eleven through the twentieth century and of changing their plots freely strategies - it still remains wayward in the because of the dearth of forest i) contour ridge construction; twenty-first century, while the areas for further cultivation of new forest and surface soil ii) contour drain construction; chenas due to the increase of deterioration, soil erosion, silting population pressure on land all iii) retaining wall construction with of village tanks, increasing round. Thus, it has become a form stone splinters and boulders to environmental aridity bringing some of continuous tilling for farming support terraces and guided drains low rainfall areas to the threshold sans soil and land management in place; of desertification are continued 14 Economic Review: April/ May 2010 unabated (Tennakoon,1980, 1993, in development. The State's main Brohier, R.L..(1975). Food and the People, Lake House Investment Ltd,. 2005).The ongoing deteriorations role should be 'setting the stage' for the beneficiary people to be the have resulted from our piecemeal Deraniyagal, S:U. (1992). The Pre- policy treatments in the use of our actors mostly. This would be : An Ecological natural resources, such as, forest, possible by facilitating the evolution Perspective: An Archaeological Survey, soil, 'green water', 'blue water' and and growth of people-centred strong Colombo, Archaeological Department all forms of our agricultural rural institutions Independently Vol. I&2. practices associated with them' as with the free and democratic voice Farmer, B.H. (1957). Pioneer Peasant compartmentalised domains in of people ensured. It remains Colonization in Ceylon, London. development. We need to questionable whether most of the revolutionise this compartmental existing rural institutions are so. Forbes,;Major (1855). Eleven Years in development practice and go for a Ceylon, London. total environment-friendly micro Thirdly, there needs to have a Gourou, Pierrie (1953) The Tropical basin-based (cascade-based) better coordination and mutual World, Trans. E.D.Lqaborde, London. development, harnessing natural understanding at least among the resources in our agriculture both key. village-level state development levers, R.W. (1899). Manual of the on long term and short term functionaries designated by the North Central Province, Govt. Printer. perspectives, using the following State through, training, field-based Colombo. recommendations: farmer-involved practical knowledge sharing devices, socialisation with Leach, E.R.(1961), PulEUya:A VUlage in Ceylon, A Study of Land Tenure and the villages, etc, so that whatever Firstly, with those living in a Kinship, Cambridge Press, London. cascade attempt two types of State assistance to the rural planning. One for the management institutions arid individual farmers Panabokke, CR, (2009). Small Village of individual village land extent, go more effectively than what Tank Systems of Sri Lanka: Their Evolution, Setting, Distribution and where irrigation water is the happens today. Essential Functions, HARTI, Qolombo. limiting factor than land, in agriculture. As. irrigation water Fourthly, there is a need for Stockdale.F.A. (1926). The Chena required in that village depends on retraining and relevant new Problem and some Suggestions for its the 'green water' received in a technological training provision to Solution, in Tropical Agriculturist, Vol. greater part of the cascade to which those State functionaries so that LXV1,. PP 199-203. that village belongs to, all village impartation of that knowledge to Tennakoon,M.U.A. (1964). Lankave the rural beneficiaries will be more residents in a particular cascade Uturudiga Thanithalawe Sala Govitena need to decide with the State effective than what exists today. The Special Issue on Agriculture in officials what extents of forest to Sri Lanka (in Sinhala), Department of be used for chenas or UHPs and the Last but not least, rethinking and Geography, University of Ceylon, extents to set apart for natural realignment with necessary Peradeniya. vegetation, soil and moisture adjustments in terms of specific Tennakoon M.U.A. (1974). Rural retention improvements, operations based on natural Settlement and Land Use in North Central regions such as individual cascade- maximising both 'green water' and Sri Lanka, M.A, Thesis Syracuse based mini drainage basins would *blue water' availability for farming. University, USA, Unpublished, be far greater effective than the It is also required to know and Available at HARTI Library, Colombo. current efforts of widely- practise the best forms of UHF land defused and poorly-coordinated Tennakoon M.U.A. (1993). preparation practices with least development efforts made. To be Environmental Impact of Unirrigated damage to soil erosion and soil more convinced about this new Highland Farming in the BaduUa District fertility, the knowledge of which is an Unpublished Report, 83 pages. thinking, it is urged to take a few available with the Department of cascades from each districts and Agriculture. Soil erosion in UHFs Tennakoon,M.U.A. (2005) EUangawa experiment for about 2 to 4 years (Sinhala Original). Godage or chenas increases silt to be sure-footed in this proposed & Sons, Colombo. accumulation in village tanks which total development path. in turn deteriorates irrigated Tennakoon, M.U.A. (1980). agriculture. References: Desertification in Sri Lanka in Perception of Desertification, Benitos and Castellanos (2003). Heathcote ed, UN University, Japan. Secondly, as the development is Improving Soil Moisture with Conservation Agriculture, Magazine for the people, it should be of the Tennent, J.E. (1859) Ceylon, London. of Low External Inputs and people and by the people. They Sustainable Agriculture (LEIS), Vol 19, must have a greater responsibility No. 2, pp,6-7.

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