37% of agricultural families in Nuwara Eliya living at the mercy of landlords

Farming communities elsewhere own 95.1% of their dwellings

by Sanath Nanayakkare-December 16, 2019,

37% of agricultural families in Nuwara Eliya do not own a household whereas their counterparts in all other districts report pretty impressive percentage numbers in terms of living in their own houses, statistics of a recent survey reveal.

The Agricultural Household Survey 2016/2017 conducted by the Department of Census and Statistics shows that there are 81,522 agricultural households In Nuwara Eliya, but in stark contrast to other 24 districts, only 63.2% of the agricultural community there lives in their own houses.

Anyway, what gives some solace is the fact that 29% of agricultural families in Nuwara Eliya district have had the chance to live in their current dwellings free from rent.

However, they may have to keep on working for their landlords if they want to live in those dwellings.

This phenomenon is more so as the percentage distribution of government owned agricultural households in Nuwara Eliya is only 0.1%.

This means if they want to live free from rent in these places, they have to 'work to live' there unlike most agricultural families in the country who have the luxury of making a choice.

Meanwhile, Colombo, Gampaha, Kalutara, Kandy, Matale, Galle, Matara, Hambantota, Mannar, Vavunia, Mullatitvu, Kilinochchi, Batticaloa, Ampara, Trincomalee districts record pretty impressive agricultural household owning numbers from 94% upward.

Out of 2,136,551 Agricultural Households in Sri Lanka, 95.1% of these dwellings belong to the farming communities, while 0.4 % is government owned, 0.5% private owned, 3.1% living spaces are free from rent, 0.3% encroached and 'other' accounts for 0.6%.

There are 40,853 agricultural households in Jaffna where 84.6% of the farming community owns a household, which means, in Jaffna more than 15% of agricultural families live in other owners' premises.

In Badulla, there are 118,932 agricultural households where 87.9% of the farming community owns a household, leaving the number of agricultural households at the mercy of their landlords at 12%.

Majority of the agricultural households in the country have used permanent materials to build their houses.

99% of agricultural households in the country uses electricity for lighting.

More than 97.6% of agricultural households have water-sealed toilets, but this number stands at 90% in Batticaloa which means 10% of agricultural households in Batticaloa have no lavatory facilities.

Nearly 60% of agricultural households have reported that they use drinking water obtained from secured well or from pipe born water. According to data in Anuradhapura district, more than 100,000 households use filtered water while that number was relatively higher in Kurunegala, Polonnaruwa, and Puttalam districts.

Almost half of the agricultural households in Nuwara Eliya district uses stream/river/canal water for drinking.

In both Vavunia and Kilinochchi, pipe born water in agricultural households is nil.

Financial loans had been taken by a considerable amount of agricultural operators in the country for their cultivation activities. Based on the number of loans reported, a majority of loans had been taken from banks (53%), loans taken from institutions providing agriculture inputs (12%), NGOs (11%) money lenders (9%), finance/leasing companies (3%) and pawning centres (5%) and other (7%).

Majority of these loans were taken to purchase seeds, fertiliser, pesticides, insecticides, and to rent agricultural equipment.

Percentage distribution of agricultural loans by districts was not available in the survey which would have shown agricultural entrepreneurship by districts.