Sri Lanka to estimate damage caused by drought to agriculture

Sri Lanka’s Minister of Agriculture, Mahinda Amaraweera, on Monday, August 7, 2023, instructed the Agriculture and Agrarian Insurance Board to estimate the damage caused by the drought to agriculture.

The minister said this following a discussion with representatives of farming communities.

Currently, the government’s compensation was only 100,000 rupees (about $315) per hectare of farmland, which is not adequate, he added.

The government provided 1.7 billion rupees ($5.3 million) as total compensation for farmers for crop damage in 2022, the minister said.