Water allocation, land tenure and yield in a purana village, Sri Lanka

An adequate water supply is a necessary requirement for a good paddy rice yield. This case study of a paddy tract in a village irrigation system found that the duration of water coverage explained variations in paddy rice yield for the middle and lower parts, whereas the relation between water coverage and yield was weak in the upper part of the paddy tract. In general, there was a decreasing yield with increasing distance from the tank (from 4176 to 718 kg/ha over a distance of 300 m). At the same time there were great variations in yield within each section, which could be attributed to management problems. Land fragmentation was relatively modest but the average yield for the farmer decreased when fragmentation increased.