Enhancing Community Resilience via Sustainable Management of Abandoned Paddy Lands in Bentota, Sri Lanka

Salt water intrusion (SWI) and coastal salinity are major causes for abandoning the paddy lands in Sri Lanka. More than 80% of paddy lands in left bank of Bentota River basin have been progressively abandoned due to contrasting degrees of saltwater intrusion by intimidating for agriculture, fishery, tourism and ground water in the area. This study was conducted applying the toolkit for the Indicators of Resilience in Socio-ecological Production Landscapes and Seascapes (SEPLS, 2014) through stakeholder perception based approach. Indictor scores and trend analysis indicate that there is a negative trend in resilience capacity of Bentota landscape in terms of abandoning the paddy lands. Several issues in contradiction of the utilization of abandoned paddy lands and the location specific land management strategies for utilizing abandoned paddy lands were identified by consulting prospective stakeholders of the area for enhancing community resilience without undermining their eco-social basis. New technological innovations as outcome of recent research and development initiatives can be introduced and promoted among the stakeholders in the area who would be the pillars for regaining the successive agriculture in Bentota area by enhancing the land productivity of abandoned paddy lands towards the sustainable land management.


Introduction
intrudes into lands up to 50 cm above mean sea level in the coastal belt of Sri Lanka and as a result of that rice growing soils in the coastal belt of Sri Lanka are salinized annually, making rice growing extremely difficult (Dimantha, 1977).

Methodology
Participatory approach was considered as the core of the entire study. With the participation of multiple strata community and government sector stakeholders, this study was conducted using the toolkit for the Indicators of Resilience in Socio-ecological Production Landscapes and Seascapes (UNU-IAS, Biodiversity International, IGES and UNDP, 2014). The SEPALS toolkit claims having the prospective to be one of the most effective tools for "not only measuring, but also raising awareness of the concept of resilience in the field of sustainable development" (Yeboah,2014). The toolkit was translated in to local language where the necessary descriptions and analytical questions were changed in order to adapt the toolkit to the local setting. The findings are grounded on the community understandings followed with a comprehensive literature review, field visits and observations of the areas in interest. Following the toolkit of SEPALS methodology, the historical transformation, present context and the future trends associated with the development of the area followed in the resilient assessment community workshops was directed to capture the diverse details with reference to the 20 indicator under five major performance criteria (Table 1). Accordingly, several community resilient assessment workshops and focused group discussions were conducted covering Pahalagamhaya and Gonagalapura Agrarian Services areas in Bentota DSD. The analysis was carried out on identifying the possible challenges for the landscape combining the outcomes of all the conducted workshops. The results of the analysis were interpreted based on the dynamic environmental, socio economic and physical context of the Bentota area as a socio economic production landscape centered on the paddy cultivation of the area. The analysis was carried out as an integration of the cover-ups indicated in Table 2.

Results and Discussion
Contextual overlay of Bentota area in terms of its current land use pattern was analyzed using 'participatory mapping' tool, which is a very productive tool that can be applied to identify existing land use pattern of the area. Land use pattern and related spatial factors of the area was updated by consulting community members representing various strata of the society related to paddy cultivation at stakeholder meetings. The gathered information was digitized using Arc GIS software to create existing land use map of the area especially including the cultivating and abandoned paddy lands. Table 1 indicates the twenty indicators under five major performance criteria which the community members participated in scoring exercise following the discussion forum. The participants were requested to assign the level of resilience of their landscape in an order of 1 for lower level to 5 for higher level for each indicator, where the overall results have derived a spectrum of perceptions held by the community regarding the performance level of their own landscape. As illustrates in Table 3, the Bentota DSD expresses lower level near to moderate level in each indicator of the five major performance criteria in concern.
Under the performance criteria one, the Landscape/ Seascape diversity & ecosystem protection, the uses of agricultural lands are changing time to time due to the change of economic value generated via market demand of the pertaining production and income generated from the cultivation trends in Bentota area. According to the community participants, the profitability of paddy cultivation is unpredictable and lesser than other Commercial crops.
For example, the productive period of a paddy land ends in six months after harvesting one time. But the productive period of a proper Tea or Cinnamon cultivation extends up to more than fifteen years and if it is Rubber cultivation the productive period will be not less than twenty years.
Agriculture in the area is severely facing the issues related to lack of labor forces. Especially the Paddy cultivation and Rubber cultivation are being rapidly collapsing at present due to lack of labor force and higher production input costs underlined. Hence mostly the local cultivators are profit oriented and selecting the most profitable crop at the given movement without considering the Land Suitability or any other environmental factors before converting their Agricultural Land use at the present time. Due to these reasons the participants have allocated the marks ranging from low to moderate where the future of paddy cultivation is at the most risk according to their perceptions. Under the indicator Ecosystem Protection, the participants indicate that the development activities along the Dedduwa lake side and along the coastal belt plus the less concern of the community have Using machines usually tend to dredge the canal deeper than required therefore salt water is easily intruding in to the paddy lands. Due to this the productivity of the paddy lands has severely reduced and paddy lands are tending to neglecting in long term. Local Farmers indicate that it was possible to harvest more than 100kgs rice per cultivated paddy acre previously but this has been heavily reduced in half due to salt water intrusion. And also, the deeper and wider canals are attracting crocodiles which have become a massive threat for the community either sides of these canals. Siltation in paddy lands from the siltation of cannels is also another issue for abandoning the paddy lands in Kandemulla and Maha Induruwa area since year 1970 and still relevant institutions are failed to provide proper solution due to lack of cooperation among them. In manual dredging, the farmers repaired the either sides of the canal banks using the dredged soils as an access path along the canal for their paddy lands. Due to mechanical dredging these access ways are not facilitated and blocked where the farmers are unable even to take a Tractor to the paddy fields. And also, people illegally cultivate along the canal reservations and this also leads to block the access ways. All these activities have severely undermined the level of community resilience as well as the landscape resilience of the area especially in terms of paddy cultivation. Farmers who prefer to do traditional and organic farming should be encouraged by providing incentives and a proper market for their products.
Practical knowledge related to traditional farming must be transferred to the younger generations by introducing a proper education mechanism related to productive agriculture. There should be a method to share the traditional knowledge among the farmers across the regions of the country as well. The reintroduction of rush and reed species to household paddy fields for processing into value-added handicraft products is essential for enhancing the local economy by utilizing abandoned paddy lands in the area. Bottle Caps used for Aurveda medicine were produced using species Kirala and Wel-aatha until year 2000 and currently these industries are fading away due to lesser demand. If this industry exists it will naturally control the spread of Wel-aatha trees which has become a severe threat for abandonment of paddy lands.
This study highly recommends that soil condition of several abandoned paddy lands is suitable for cinnamon cultivation where spreading 'Beru' trees.
Deployment of coastal abandoned paddy lands for coconut cultivations is productive and toddy and coconut honey industry which was very rich and popular in the area during 1980's can be promoted again towards the higher local economy. There is a requirement to amend the paddy land policies to be directed towards the removal of the existing constraints on the conversion of abandoned paddy lands into other more profitable uses in areas where paddy cultivation has become increasingly unprofitable, dispelling the myth that paddy cultivation ensures food security at the level of the household for its entire labour force.

Conclusion
According to the overall assessment of landscape level community resilient capacity, the diversity and protection of the Bentota region is facing multiple issues comparative to the other considered measures.