Impact on the climate change effects in the plantation sector and remedial measures

Yajith de Silva is an accomplished corporate manager with over 40 years of experience in the plantations industry. His background includes both general and senior management roles, with expertise in corporate and strategic planning, operations, human resource management, and talent development. He has a strong track record in executive leadership, project management, and building strategic partnerships, resulting in rapid revenue and profit growth.

Crops Historical Background:

The plantation crop sector, particularly tea, is a key contributor to the Sri Lankan economy in terms of foreign exchange earnings, employment, and food supply. However, changes in temperature, rainfall, and the occurrence of extreme weather events have adversely affected the sector.

It is no doubt agriculture is the backbone of our country and is the primary economic activity of the people. It is one of the most important steps in the development of human beings from primitive civilization to modern civilization. The type of farming varies from place to place. There are several types of agricultural methods. Sri Lanka has a long history of plantation agriculture, primarily focused on tea, rubber, and coconut. Whilst Tea and rubber introduced by British, coconut has been in existence much before the other two major crops introduced to Sri Lanka. However, British initially introduced coffee but due to deadly disease of coffee rust, they have decided to diversify the coffee into tea.

One of the main reasons for them to introduce the two main crop was due to good agroclimatic and soil conditions in Sri Lanka.

Importance of the plantation agriculture

Plantation agriculture is one of the most widely used agricultural methods based on natural and economic conditions. Tree crops, especially tea, rubber and coconut are a vital component of Sri Lanka’s economy and a major source of employment and export earnings. It is a fact that the net foreign income from the plantations is much higher than the industrial sector as the plantation sector uses much of the inputs from our own resources.

Increasing exports is of paramount importance to improve the present Foreign Exchange (FE) crisis. A major source of FE is the plantation sector. Around 800,000 ha in the country are cultivated with plantation crops tea, rubber, coconut etc. and this sector, in the last few years earned Rs. 360 billion annually. However, production has been stagnant during past few years, despite the fact related cost has been increased due to external uncontrollable factors, causing challenges to the people who engage in the sector.

Challenges faced by the plantation sector.

Amongst many challenges such as social/ technological issues, lack of research and innovation, low productivity,  stand, poor growth, and incorrect harvesting practices of Rubber, loss of viable land, erosion, and other factors decrease the ability of farmers to use land,  lack of infrastructure facilities, high employee turnover high cost of production, labor shortage, quality issues, government regulations, in consistence policies, international conflicts, climatic change effects has made a major impact on plantation agriculture. In fact, some of the challenges are as result of climate change.

When the two major crops were introduced to Sri Lanka, British people have looked at agroclimatic regions most suitable to tea and rubber. As a result, most of the tea plantations were introduced in the higher elevations of Sri Lanka and the Rubber was introduced to low country wet zone.

Climate change Effects on Tea Plantations:

Changing Rainfall Patterns

Sri Lanka's tea-growing regions traditionally benefit from a specific rainfall pattern that encourages optimal growth. Climate change has disrupted this pattern leading to erratic rainfall, prolonged dry spells, and intense rainfall events. These changes can affect tea yields, cause water stress, and impact the quality of tea leaves.

Precipitation: shifts in rainfall patterns can lead to water stress for tea plants. Both droughts and excessive rainfall can negatively impact the quality and yield of tea leaves. Changes in climate, particularly temperature and precipitation, impact the chemical composition of tea leaves. This could result in differences in flavor profiles and quality of the final product potentially affecting consumer preferences and market demand.

Temperature Increases: Rising temperatures can affect the flavor and quality of tea leaves. Elevated temperatures may also create favorable conditions for pests and diseases, leading to increased management efforts and potential crop loss.

Increasing temperatures lead to physiological stress in tea plants. Elevated temperatures result in reduced photosynthesis, altered metabolism and increased susceptibility to pests and diseases. These factors can negatively impact the overall health and productivity of tea crops.

Extreme Weather Events: Erratic weather patterns can result in damage to tea bushes, affecting overall production. Severe weather events, such as storms or cyclones, can lead to physical damage and crop loss.

"Changes in precipitation and temperature can impact soil quality, potentially leading to erosion and reduced fertility, which can affect the overall health and productivity of rubber plantations"

Changing elevation suitability

With rising temperatures, the suitable elevation for tea cultivation is shifting upwards. As the optimal growing conditions move to higher altitudes it might be challenging for tea producers in lower elevation regions to maintain productivity.

Changing Rainfall Patterns

Sri Lanka's tea-growing regions traditionally benefit from a specific rainfall pattern that encourages optimal growth. Climate change has disrupted this pattern leading to erratic rainfall, prolonged dry spells, and intense rainfall events. These changes can affect tea yields cause water stress, impact the quality of tea leaves.

Rubber Plantations:

Drought and Water Availability

Changes in rainfall patterns lead to water scarcity, affecting the growth and yield of rubber trees. Drought conditions can impact latex production and tree health.

Pest and Disease Outbreaks

Warmer temperatures and changes in humidity can create more favorable conditions for pests and diseases that affect rubber trees, leading to decreased latex production and potential tree loss. This a happing today and Rubber production has reduced to alarming levels due to a leaf disease prevalent at preset and the farmers are unable to make a living out of their cultivation of as the rubber is cultivated in the wet zones of Sri Lanka

Soil Degradation:

Changes in precipitation and temperature can impact soil quality, potentially leading to erosion and reduced fertility, which can affect the overall health and productivity of rubber plantations. In response to these threats, the tea and rubber industries

in Sri Lanka are working to develop climate-resilient varieties, improve water management practices, and implement sustainable agricultural techniques to mitigate the impacts of climate change. Collaboration and adaptive strategies will be essential for the long-term sustainability of these industries in the face of a changing climate,

How to mitigate              

Sri Lanka being an Island, the most limiting factor is the availability of suitable land for cultivation. Taking to this important aspect authorities should pay attention to enhance the land use efficiency and introduce most suitable crops considering the climate change effects rather than stick into the traditional approach of keeping same crop in the given areas, as per the famous say, “doing same thing you can’t accept different results.”

Whilst one should consider factors such as adopting GAP’s, pest, and disease control measures, investing in agroforestry models. Improving irrigation and water management techniques promoting sustainable farming practice, it is important to look at crop diversification.

The primary objective of diversification is reducing the dependence on a single crop and promote the cultivation of a variety of crop and the key objectives is risk management and growing a diverse range of crops helps to mitigate the risks associated with climate variability pest and diseases market fluctuations If one crop fails due to unfavorable conditions, other crops may still thrive, providing a more stable.

Sri Lanka is famous for its product quality of Tea Rubber and Coconut. However, other than tea, county is facing major challenges to meet the requirement of rubber and export coconut as a value-added product, where there is a grater protentional coconut related product. As such it is important to encourage the farmers to cultivate crops such as Oil palm where it has an ability to convert sunlight, an energy source freely available into cash and goods and for environmental befits of its carbon dioxide fixing ability and introduced rubber to the non-traditional areas, at least to meet the local demand.

Above mentioned mitigating factors will not only enhance the land use efficiency but also will address the socio-economic issues of the stakeholders who engage in the sector.