5th International Symposium on Advances in Civil and Environmental Engineering Practices for Sustainable Development (ACEPS-2017)

C C R I L Bank Irrigation Canal Command Areas of District, M.Sugirtharan1, S.Dasinaa2 and L.B.F.Musatha1 1Department of Agricultural Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, Eastern University, SRI LANKA

2 English Language Teaching Unit, Eastern University, SRI LANKA Email: [email protected]

Abstract: Agriculture is one of the most livelihood options in Sri Lanka where the farmers have been experienced with many impacts due to the climatic changes. However, increasing climatic change has become more threatening to the sustainable economic development especially on agricultural activities and the totality of human existence in most of the dry zone of Sri Lanka. In this view, present study was designed to examine the impacts of climate change and to study the awareness on climate change among the farmers in the irrigable areas of Trincomalee District. Purposive and stratified random sampling techniques have been employed as the major methods of sampling during the data collection where a total of 150 farmers were selected from 12 GN divisions. Pre-tested and structured questionnaire was used to collect the primary data from the respondents while secondary data were collected from the Irrigation Department, Department of Agriculture, Meteorological Department, Agrarian Services Department and District Secretariat of Trincomalee. Collected data were analysed using SPSS software (version 19). Results revealed that the majority of the respondents those who were involved in farming activities were males (88%) and their education level (53.3%) was in an average. Further, majority of the respondents (70%) were engaged in paddy cultivation (60%) where most of the respondents aware about flood (82%) and drought (74%) as the impact of climate change. Reduced crop yield (92%), reduced productivity (83%) and drinking water depletion (53%) were the few changes observed by the farmers at the study area. Moreover, impact of climatic change caused the poverty (81%) and reduced the productivity. Among the total cultivable land, 60.9% of the extent was affected by the severe flood. However, these situations are still common in all of the dry zone in the Eastern Region of the Island. Therefore, vulnerability assessments need to be done for future climate hazards as well as current variability in the study area where the adaptation measures that address current and future levels of climate change should be given priority.

Key words: Flood, Drought, agriculture, climate change, Irrigable areas.

1. INTRODUCTION

Agriculture is one of the core sectors influences a lot in the Sri Lankan economy where it plays a vital role for the contribution of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) with the right increment of per capita income of the population. However, the growing problems of climate change are becoming more threatening to the sustainable economic development and the totality of human existence (Adejuwon, 2004). According to the meteorological data (2015) for the prevalence of climatic conditions in Sri Lanka, there are many evidences have been pointed out that the climatic change will drastically affect on the peak productivity not only on the Agricultural sectors but also in the tourism and health sector. As mentioned by Jayatillake et al., (2004), there was a reduction in the National GDP for the Agricultural sector by means of 30% to 21% during the past 3 decades (1970-2000) due to several reasons including reduced yield because of natural hazards like flood and drought.

Further, paddy is cultivated in Sri Lanka based on the rain fed conditions focusing mainly on rainfall pattern. And also, the cultivation is relatively lower under the irrigation system due to the water availability in most of the area which comes under the dry zone. North-east monsoon brings rain in the northern and

295 5th International Symposium on Advances in Civil and Environmental Engineering Practices for Sustainable Development (ACEPS-2017) eastern regions during November to January while the western, southern and central regions of the island get rain from May to July due to the south west monsoon. The mean annual rainfall varies from 900mm in the driest parts (south eastern and north western) to over 5000mm in the wet zones. The average yearly temperature as a whole ranged from 28oC to 32oC where different elevation determines different level of temperature in Sri Lanka. Therefore, such changes in temperature and rainfall patterns may manifest in the reduction in land quality leads to low agricultural yields.

Increased occurrence of extreme rainfall events due to climate change, droughts and floods, have become a common feature of the climate of Sri Lanka, during recent years. Under such situations, crop losses due to decreased soil moisture and excess water, both in terms of quality and quantity are inevitable. Moreover, increased occurrence of positive rainfall anomalies is likely to cause severe damages to existing irrigation infrastructures and thus, limiting the water availability for crop production causing under- irrigation. Most of the cultivated crops in Sri Lanka operate at a near maximum of the optimum temperature range of respective crops. Thus, crop injuries due to high temperatures are inevitable in Sri Lankan agriculture under a changing climate. Being a developing country, the most appropriate response strategy for climate change is adaptation activities rather than mitigation exercises. According to the Department of Meteorology in Sri Lanka, annual mean air temperature has shown significant increases in recent decades (Basnayake et al., 2004). With those above backgrounds, present study was conducted in Trincomalee District of Sri Lanka to identify the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents at study impacts on various aspects such as water resources, soil nutrient conservation, socio economic condition, bio diversity and aquaculture.

2. MATERIALS AND METHODS

2.1. Description of the Study Area (Trincomalee District)

Trincomalee is a tropical wet and dry climatic district under the Koppen climate classification where the city features a dry season from March through June and a wet season for the remaining of the year. The city falls on average roughly 1,570 millimetres of precipitation annually and the average temperatures is ranges from 26 °C (December and January) to approximately 30 °C (April through September). And also, recorded temperature in the city is ranges from 19.9 °C to 39.5 °C.

Figure 1 Location of study area in Trincomalee District

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2.2. Location of Study Area

The study was conducted in the Irrigable areas of three DS Divisions named as , and of Trincomalee District where the irrigation is mainly done by Kantale Tank. Kantale tank is the ancient irrigation construction belongs to the Trincomalee District where three major divisions (Kantale as Head, Thampalakamam as Mid, and Kinniya as Tail) are irrigated by the Left Bank (LB) main canal of this tank.

2.3. Sampling Procedure Purposive, Stratified Random Sampling Techniques have been employed as the major methods of sampling for the data collection. The Purposive sampling techniques have been used for the selection of major irrigation tank which is used to irrigate large extent of cultivable areas and based on that, the representative villages were selected. The selected sampling population, total of 150 farmers from the selected GN divisions was undergone with the household interview through two stage stratified sampling followed by the random sampling technique. 2.4. Method of Data Collection

The relevant data was collected from primary as well as secondary sources. The primary data was obtained from a formal household questionnaire survey, key informant discussion and direct observation. The secondary data was collected from the Irrigation Department, Department of Agriculture, Agrarian service center, DS divisions of Kantale, Kinniya and Thampalakamam, Reports of Central Bank, Census and Statistical Reports and published Literatures.

A questionnaire was developed on the basis of the research objectives where pretested questionnaire and personal interviews were randomly carried out among the selected 150 farmers, in the study area. The questions were designed to cover the topics such as impact of climate change, agricultural adaptation to climate change, socio economic information, problems in adaptation and suggestions, which generally serves as an indicator for the impact of climate change and its adaptation. 2.5. Data Analysis

The completed questionnaires were checked and data were entered in Excel data sheet. Data were analyzed by using SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Science) software (version 19.0) for Windows. Data were confined to estimate frequencies and descriptive statistics. Frequency distribution, percentage of the response in each variable, means and standard deviations were analyzed using descriptive statistics.

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS The study was aimed to assess the impacts of climate change on agriculture, water resources, soil nutrient, environment and fisheries in some irrigable areas of Trincomalee District, Sri Lanka.

3.1. Climatic Conditions of Trincomalee District

Average fall hits as 1569 mm per year, or 130.8 mm per month. Further, on an average falls occurs 109 days per year with more than 0.1 mm of rainfall or 9.1 days with a quantity of rain, sleet etc. per month. The driest weather is in June with an average of 26 mm (1 inch) of rainfall while the wettest weather is in December with an average of 341 mm (13.4 in) of rainfall. The annual mean temperature in Trincomalee District is very hot (28.5 degrees Celsius) where the average diurnal temperature variation/ range hit 6.7 °C. The warmest month (June) is depicts a mean temperature of 30.6 °C while the coldest month (January) is denoted with an average temperature of 26.1 °C.

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Figure 2 Average Precipitation of Trincomalee District, 2015

3.2. Socio-economic Characteristics of the Respondents

General details such as gender, age, family size, education, occupational patterns, income generation and the types of farming at irrigable areas were investigated and presented below. According to the results obtained from the study, more than 88% of the male and 12% of women involved in farming activities. In general, increased involvements of female farmers were found in semi intensive livestock rearing activities. Cultural pattern and the working ability are mainly influence the less numbers of the female participation in farming activity.

Figure 3 Age category of the Respondents

Figure 3 reveals that the majority of the farmers (53.3%) belong to the age group of 41-50, while 2.6%, 3.3%, 24.6% and 16% of the farmers are with the age category of >61, 21-30, 31-40 and 51-60, respectively. Where the farmers from the middle age group (31-50) have more experience and physically adapted to the farming activities. Further, the household size could be a measure of available labour for farming activities. At the present study, average family size of respondents was 5 (60%) and the minimum and maximum family sizes were 2 and 7, respectively. Majority of the respondents (53.3%) had attended the secondary level education (secondary level was considered as between grade 6 to11) and 40% of the

298 5th International Symposium on Advances in Civil and Environmental Engineering Practices for Sustainable Development (ACEPS-2017) respondents had attended the Advanced level education (Advanced level was considered as grade 12 to13). Very few people qualified with higher education (4%) at the study location. Education plays an important role in creating awareness among farming communities because educated people are better equipped to source information.

Figure 4 Occupation of the Respondents

Figure 4 shows that, majority of the respondents (70%) were farmers while, 14%, 8% and 4% were engaged in day wage, private companies and monthly wage, respectively. As far as the ethnicity is concerned, the majority of the respondents were Muslims (54.7%) and 40% and 5% of the total respondents were Sinhala and Tamil, respectively.

Figure 5 Types of Farming At the current study, income level of the respondents was collected in order to understand the influence of

(43.3%) income was in between Rs. 20,001 and Rs. 25,000 and also, 27.3%, 24.7%, 2.7% and 2% of the

35,001 to Rs. 40,000, respectively. In general, farmers are unable to satisfy with their basic needs with the monthly income from their own farm. Also most of the farmers were not getting fixed monthly income, they earn money from the sale of agricultural products from their farm and their income depends on climatic

299 5th International Symposium on Advances in Civil and Environmental Engineering Practices for Sustainable Development (ACEPS-2017) conditions, marketability, demand of crop and available yield at that particular season. Less income from irrigable areas not only due to the climate change but also, due to limitation on land, capital, lack of management skill and low market price. Therefore, they are trying to increase their incomes through non- farm activities, which may have less affected by climate change. It is evidenced from the figure 5 that the majority of the respondents (60%) involved only on paddy cultivation while 14% of the respondents involving both on paddy and vegetable cultivation. Not only that, around 12.6%, 5.3%, 6% and 2% of the respondents involved on both livestock and paddy, fishing, only on vegetable cultivation, and both on livestock rearing and vegetable cultivation, respectively.

3.3. Climatic Changes Related Issues

3.3.1. Sources of Awareness on climate change.

According to the survey results, all the farmers were well known about the climate changes through different ways. At this study, majority of farmers were known about climate change through their own experience, TV, Radio, Newspaper, and learnt in school. However, very few farmers were known through the internet and through other people.

3.3.2. Type of climatic changes

According to the results obtained via the survey conducted at the present study, most of the respondents were well aware about the flooding (82%) is one of the impacts due to the atmospheric disturbances. Around 74% of the respondents were pointed the drought and changing rainfall pattern are the impact of climate change (Figure 6). And also, more or less very fewer respondents experienced the impact of climate changes such as increased temperature and decreased water availability at the farming ponds. Realization of cyclone/storm and loss of vegetation were responded by less than 10% of the total respondents. Because, most of the farmers were directly affected only by drought and flood compare to other climate changes.

Figure 6 Types of climatic changes

3.3.3. Impacts of climatic changes on the farming activities

Agriculture is one of the most vulnerable sectors which highly linked with the natural resources and the environment. The effect of climatic changes on the agriculture is due to three major impacts, namely temperature rise, rainfall variation and carbon fertilization effects (Herath and Ratnayake, 2004).

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Reduced fish population

Salinization of Coastal Land

Reduced Livestock Production

Increased Water Demand

Increased Pest and Disease

Change of Seasonal Timing

Reduced crop yield

0 20 40 60 80 Figure 7 Impacts of climatic changes on farming

It is evidenced from the above figure 7 that the majority of the respondents (92%) felt reduced crop yield while 47.3%, 42.7%, 24.5% of the respondents felt the change of seasonal timing, increased pest and disease and increased water demand are some of the impacts of climate change. And very less percentage of farmers felt reduced livestock production, salinization of coastal land, and reduced fish population at their command area.

3.3.4. Impacts of climatic changes on socio-economic condition

Epidemic Diseases

Loss of Cultivable land

Constraints In Fishing

Drinking water Depletion

Poverty

Reduced productivity

Figure 8 Impacts of climatic changes on socio-economic condition

The Figure 8 shows that the climate change impact is highly causing poverty (81%) and reduced the productivity (83%) as agriculture is the main occupation (mostly paddy cultivation) in the study area which is highly susceptible to the climate change impacts like increased drought and flood leads to the reduction of crop productivity. And also, 53% of farmers realized about drinking water depletion because of drought.

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3.3.5. Climate change impact on Environment

Only 7% of the farmers were with much awareness on the Climate change regarding the impacts on the Environment. The major impact is salinization of coastal land caused by the salt water intrusion due to sea level rise compared with inland water resources. Simultaneously, climate is a primary factor that determines the geographical distribution of ecosystems and availability of biodiversity around the world (Herath and Ratnayake, 2004).

3.3.6. Extreme flooding impact on cultivable land/livestock

Extreme flooding impacts were observed in villages like Thampalakamam, Wendarasanpura, Agbopura, Battukachiya, Rajaveva, Majeednagar, Naduuttu, and Mahammaru where the impacts are mainly on the loss of cultivable land by Eichornia spp as weeds (34%), loss of yield by unfilled grains (64%), affect the ploughing practices (67%), sowing practices (34%), fertilizer application (54%), pesticides application (53%), harvesting (23%), change of soil condition (12%), and blocking the accessibility. Mainly paddy cultivation was affected by the flood in the study area. Therefore, the impact of high rainfall and flooding on paddy cultivation is considerably peak in those areas. 4. CONCLUSIONS Most of the farmers from the Kantale left bank canal irrigation command area aware about flood and drought are the long term impact of climate change which affect the crop yield, reduced productivity thus lead to poverty. Age and educational level of the farmers from this area highly influenced on the climate change related issues and implication of adaptation techniques. To improve the crop yield and livestock production, agriculture and related activities should get priority in climate related research. Sustainable environmental and natural resource management in this canal command area are essential in order to reduce vulnerability caused by climate change. Extension service should be strengthened through organizing adult education programs for farmers to expose them to climate change. Further, Government and NGOs should work together both to strengthen community-based climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction to facilitate the community to improve their living standard against climate change impacts. 5. REFERENCES

Adejuwon, S. A. (2004). Impacts of climate variability and climate change on crop yield in Nigeria. In femi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria.

Basnayake, B. R. S. B., and Vithanage, J. C. (2004). Rainfall change scenarios for Sri Lanka under the anticipated climate change. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Sustainable Water Resources Management in the Changing Environment of the Monsoon Region (Vol. 1).

Herath, S., and Ratnayake, U. (2004). Monitoring rainfall trends to predict adverse impacts a case study from Sri Lanka (1964 1993). Global Environmental Change, 14, 71-79.

Jayatillake, H. M., Droogers, P., and Aerts, J. C. J. H. (2004). Will there be sufficient water under internal and external changes? Walawe Basin (Sri Lanka). Climate Change in Contrasting River Basins: Adaptation Strategies for Water, Food, and Environment, 195. Meteorological Department, (2015). Reports and Records, , Sri Lanka.

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