News
Nuwara Eliya’s small-scale farmers forced to abandon farmlands
View(s):Pix and text by Shelton Hettiaarachchi
Nuwara Eliya’s small-scale farmers whose livelihoods depended on small plots of cultivated land, are now gradually abandoning their farmlands due to the high cost of cultivation.
As a result, some former farmlands are turning into overgrown shrublands.
Particularly during the past two years, due to the changing climatic conditions in Nuwara Eliya, farmers have been unable to cultivate at the proper time and many find it difficult to continue farming, they say.
They also pointed out that the continuous rise in production costs, the inability to obtain fair prices for their produce, difficulties in receiving payments from intermediaries, the necessity of selling vegetables through middlemen, and unfavourable and unpredictable weather are all contributing factors.
Once a vegetable plot now a shrubland
Farmers are also compelled to purchase vegetable seeds imported from abroad and distributed solely through private companies—often of inconsistent quality and standards while the daily increase in labour wages and the shortage of farm labourers have worsened the situation.
On the part of the government, some agricultural officers assigned to serve under village-level agricultural service divisions fail to provide effective or productive support to the farmers.
For many farmers in Nuwara Eliya, potato cultivation has now become merely a dream. Crops such as cabbage, carrot, beetroot, leeks, and lettuce—which were once cultivated exclusively in Nuwara Eliya—are now being grown in other regions such as Uva Paranagama, Welimada, Haputale, and even Puttalam. This expansion of “up-country” vegetable cultivation into other areas has become a major challenge for Nuwara Eliya farmers.
Since these farmers are unable to shift to alternative crops apart from carrots, beetroots, leeks, cabbage, and lettuce, many are abandoning their lands.
Farmers said it is also surprising that Nuwara Eliya farmers do not receive fertiliser subsidies that are granted to farmers in other parts of the country.
According to the price index displayed at the Nuwara Eliya Economic Center on October 23, 2025, the prices per kilogram were as follows: cabbage – Rs. 70, carrot – Rs. 120, leeks – Rs. 80, radish – Rs. 50, beetroot – Rs. 80, and lettuce – Rs. 130. However, farmers state that they are unable to sell their produce at the listed prices.
Due to all these reasons, a large number of farmlands have been abandoned across Nuwara Eliya. Immediate and serious attention must be directed towards addressing the plight of these farmers.
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