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Wanathavilluwa’s renowned cashew industry hit by climate change and lack of official redress
View(s):By Hhiran Priyankara Jayasinghe
Wanathavilluwa cashew cultivators are moving away from their traditional crops due to disease and more recently climate change affecting their harvests.
For the past decade, farmers have invested heavily in efforts to protect their yields from various diseases. However, they say that erratic weather patterns are now dealing the final blow. Heavy, unseasonal rains are increasingly occurring during the critical flowering and fruiting stages.
Cultivators have now resorted to removing the cashew trees from their lands and instead planting coconut saplings. The cashew trees are being cut and sold as timber.
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- Wanathavilluwa is renowned for its superior taste and quality
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- Ven. Horagolle Dammika Thera
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- Coconut saplings replacing the cashew trees that have been cut down
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- From trees to logs: Cashew trees ready to be sold as timber
While the Puttalam district boasts over 20,000 acres of cashew cultivation, the produce from Wanathavilluwa is renowned for its superior taste and quality.Farmers say that relevant authorities including the Cashew Cooperation have done little to address the problem of their harvests being affected by climate change.
Both large, medium and small scale businessmen who have spent large sums of money to buy equipment to produce cashew have been affected as their crops have dwindled.
Ven. Horagolle Dammika Thera, Chief Incumbent of the Vijayapura temple, noted that while Wanathavilluwa has a rich history of cashew cultivation, the lack of official intervention is forcing farmers to abandon this crop.
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