Historical Evaluation of Agriculture Settlement Schemes in Sri Lanka: Development Lessons

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume IV, Issue X, October 2020 | ISSN 2454–6186

Historical Evaluation of Agriculture Settlement Schemes in Sri Lanka: Development Lessons

 M.K.L. Irangani
Department of Humanities, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Rajarata University of Sri Lanka

Abstract
Agriculture settlements have been the mainstream of Sri Lanka’s development agenda since the 1930s to 1980s. It has rich experiences,particularly in the planning and implementation stages, which later resulted in many issues in the schemes. Thus, this study aimed to review existing knowledge on developmental experiences during the planning and implementation stages of the agriculture settlement schemes in Sri Lanka. Here, the study applied the content analytical technique. The review commenced under four areas of the subject – 1) errors in settlement planning, 2) errors in the administrative mechanism, 3) problems related to economic returns, and 4) issues in the land legislation. In the concluding point of the review, the study exposed the importance of considering developmental experiences in the future planning of agriculture settlement schemes in the country.

Keywords: Agriculture settlement schemes, Economic return, Land legislation, Settlement planning, Sri Lanka

1. INTRODUCTION

Agriculture Settlement Schemes are the main agriculture development program implemented in the dry zone of Sri Lanka since the 1930s. The primary objectives of settling people in the country’s dry zone under the Settlement Schemes at the early stage were to enhance food production, address the land scarcity issue arising due to the high population pressure in the wet zone, eliminate the land issue among the poorest of the poor, protect peasant farmers, generate employment opportunities using unused land resource-base in the dry zone, resolve the potentially serious political problems resulting from the existing agrarian structure, upgrade the gross national product, and accelerate economic growth (Farmer, 1952; Farmer, 1956; Dunham, 1982). Later, the generation of hydropower, promotion of industrial based –agro-based industries in particular– and promotion of export crops were the added objectives to the settlement schemes(Chandrasiri, 2010). The contribution of the Agricultural Settlement Schemes to the national economy is massive and could be viewed differently. According to the Department of Land Commissioner (2006), 1,166,762 people were settled in various settlement schemes, allocating 2,042,336 acres by 2006. As a result, the

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