General Information

Present status in-brief (statistics of 2020/21)

Land use	occupies ~34% of the total cultivated area
Extent of cultivation	Maha (approx. 748,027 ha) and Yala (approx. 368,906 ha) – annual total of 1,116,933 ha
Average annual yield	3.1 million Tons (sufficient for 95% of the annual domestic requirement)
Beneficiaries	provides livelihood for 1.8 million farmer families island-wide
Cost of production	per 1 kg rice, Rs.23.17 (irrigated systems) to Rs. 32.38 (rain-fed systems)
Main cost factors	labour (43%), machineries (38%) and inputs (19%) (in irrigated cultivation systems)
Per capita consumption	around 107 kg / year (depends on the comparative prices of rice, bread and wheat flour)
Nutritional supplement from rice	fulfils 45% calorie and 40% protein requirement of an average Sri Lankan
Major challenges	improving productivity to maintain self sufficiency and to feed the increasing population improving quality of produce (physical and chemical including rice with health benefits)

RRDI_Rice_Introduction