Due to severe drought, more than 66,234 acres of paddy and other crops have been damaged this year.
The Agriculture and Rural Insurance Board said that 67,408 farmers have been affected.
The highest amount of crop damage is reported from Kurunegala district.
That amount is over 16,992 acres.
Over 14,810 acres of Udawalawa area has been destroyed due to drought.
With these droughts in some areas and accumulation of water due to excessive rains in some areas, SL needs to build a network of canals which could feed the areas of paddy growing areas and reducing the damage to crops. The land of Punjab, in India and Pakistan with all the limited rains, is the bread basket to their respective countries. The reason is that they have one of the largest network of canals feeding their land.