Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-pwrkn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-09-13T00:54:05.067Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Modernization versus Sustainability: Disintegrating Village Agro-ecocomplexes in the Dry Zone of Sri Lanka

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 August 2009

Rohana Ulluwishewa
Rohana Ulluwishewa
Affiliation:
Senior Lecturer, Department of Geography, Sri Jayewardenepura University, Nugegoda, Sri Lanka.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The agro-ecocomplexes of traditional villages in the Dry Zone of Sri Lanka included four major components, namely crop cultivation, animal husbandry, fishery, and forestry. While these four components collectively provided practically all the food and other needs of the village inhabitants, the ecological interactions between these components contributed to the sustainability of the village agro-ecocomplex. Thus the livestock were used to provide draught power for farming, and were fed on crop residues and straw, their dung being used to fertilize the soil. Fishery was mainly on irrigated paddy fields and in the irrigation system, while the fish on the paddy fields consumed harmful insects and worms, and provided fertilizer in their excreta. The village forest on the catchment area, and the trees sparsely grown on the cultivated area and in the irrigation system, substantially contributed to maintain the natural productivity, yielding firewood, timber, and various foods. In this manner, the village agro-ecocomplex functioned to satisfy the needs of its human inhabitants without impairing its own sustainability.

This village agro-ecocomplex system is now in the process of disintegration owing to structural, technological, and institutional, changes brought about by modem development. The reason is that these modern development strategies were basically designed to raise the production of the land-area rather than to preserve the productivity of the given agro-ecocomplex. For while farm mechanization displaced the draught animals, the increased population pressure of more and more humans reduced the grazing lands. Both modern development and population pressure had destructive effects on the forest cover, while increased utilization of agrochemicals adversely affected the fish culture on paddy fields. In this way, livestock, fishery, and forestry, all became insignificant or at least insufficient, and were de-linked from crop cultivation. In consequence, the village agro-ecocomplex has become de-stabilized, and dependence on external inputs has increased so greatly that self-sustainability of the village agro-ecocomplex has ceased to exist except in some remote areas.

Type
Main Papers
Information
Environmental Conservation , Volume 18 , Issue 2 , Summer 1991 , pp. 103 - 109
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation for Environmental Conservation 1991

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Department of Agriculture (1931). Manual of Green Manuring. Colombo, Ceylon: [not available for checking].Google Scholar
Goldsmith, E. (1982). Traditional agriculture in Sri Lanka. The Ecologist, 12(5), pp. 209–16, illustr.Google Scholar
Hora, S.L. & Pillay, T.V.R. (1962). Hand Book of Fish Culture in the Indo–Pacific Region. FAO Fish Biol. Tech. Paper 14, FAO, Rome, Italy: 204 pp.Google Scholar
Mendis, A.S. (1962). Guide to the Freshwater Fauna of Ceylon. Fisheries Research Station, Colombo, Ceylon: 160 pp., illustr.Google Scholar
Ministry of Plan Implementation (1980). Survey on Nutritional Status in Mahaweli H Area. Colombo, Sri Lanka: [not available for checking].Google Scholar
Molecode, W. (1926). Green manure for paddy. Tropical Agriculturist, 66(3), pp. 160–1.Google Scholar
Pillainayagam, G.M. (1982). Research into Farm Power and Equipment in Sri Lanka. Paper presented at the Regional Seminar on Farm Power, 25–29 10 1982, Agrarian Research and Training Institute, Colombo, Sri Lanka: 8 pp.Google Scholar
Ranatunga, A.S. & Abeysekera, W.A.T. (1977). Profitability and Resource Characteristics of Paddy Farming. Agrarian Research and Training Institute, Colombo, Sri Lanka: xi + 55 pp.Google Scholar
Robinson, P. (1983). The role of silvopastoralism in small farming systems. Pp. 204–10 in Agroforestry Systems for Small Scale Farmers (Eds Hoekstra, D.A. & Kugurn, F.M.). Proceedings of the ICARF/BAT Workshop, International Council for Research for Agroforestry, 09, 1982, Nairobi, Kenya: xii + 372 pp., illustr.Google Scholar
Sandell, K. (1988). Ecostrategies in Theroy and Practice. Linkoping Studies in Arts and Science, Linkoping, Sweden: 198 pp., illustr.Google Scholar
Senanayake, R. (1983). The ecological, energetic and agronomic systems of ancient and modern Sri Lanka. The Ecologist, 13(4), pp. 136–40.Google Scholar
Silva, K.H.G.M. de (1986). Potential of inland fisheries and aquaculture in integrated agriculture in Sri Lanka. Pp. 32–52 in Integrated Farming Systems (Eds Gunasena, H.P.M. & Herath, H.G.M.). Proceedings of the Symposium on Integrated Farming Systems, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, 4th 04 1986: iii + 99 pp.Google Scholar
Siriweera, W.I. (1982). Water Resources and Buffalo and Cattle Rearing in Sri Lanka: A Historical Perspective. Agrarian Research and Training Institute, Colombo, Sri Lanka: 40 pp.Google Scholar
Somasiri, (1978). Effective utilization of physical agricultural resources in the dry zone of Sri Lanka. Tropical Agriculturist, 134(1), pp. 17–31.Google Scholar
Tennakoon, M.U.A. (1986). Reasons for short supply of milk. Economic Review, 11(12), pp. 10–2.Google Scholar
Ulluwishewa, R. (1985). Impact of the government policy on the mechanization of paddy land preparation in the dry zone of Sri Lanka. Journal of the Faculty of Agriculture, Kyushu University, 29(4), 167–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ulluwishewa, R. (1989). A comparison of tethering and freegrazing buffalo management systems in Sri Lanka. Buffalo Journal, 5(2), pp. 121–9.Google Scholar
Wickramasinghe, R.H. (1988). Contemporary Environmental Challenges: A Sri Lankan Reader. Institute of Tropical Environmental Studies, Colombo, Sri Lanka: 125 pp.Google Scholar
Wolf, E.C. (1986). Beyond the Green Revolution: New Approaches for Third World Agriculture. WorldWatch Institute, Washington, DC, USA: [not available for checking].Google Scholar