Problems of Land Use in the Dry Zone of Ceylon

The dry zone of Ceylon (see Fig. i) is that rare phenomenon in Southern Asia, a relatively large area with a sparse population and with opportunities for colonization. It was specifically to study peasant colonization that I visited Ceylon in 1951, and I should like to thank those bodies and individuals who made my work possible; the Royal Geographical Society, the Royal Institute of International Affairs and the Leverhulme Trustees for finance, my College and University for leave of absence, and many Ceylonese individuals, from Prime Minister and High Commissioner to peasant, for help and hospitality. I do not propose however to confine myself to peasant colonization today,1 but to discuss certain broader problems of Dry Zone land use. I do not pretend that my brief survey will be more than a general reconnaissance. Apart from my own observations and from the excellent one-inch map of Ceylon, there are a few sources of statistical data 2 and a certain amount of written material. 3 But there is a great need for a comprehensive survey of land use, as was, indeed, recognized by the mission of the International Bank which recently visited Ceylon 4; there is also a need, unfortunately less recognized, for research of a more fundamental character into groundwater conditions and into other physical factors in land use

Agronomy · Ancient history · Biology · Ceylon · Dry land · Dry zone · Geography · Agriculture, Water, and Health · Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management · Environmental Science · Geology · History · Land Rights and Reforms

• Four types of relationships between rainfall and paddy production in Sri Lanka

  Open Access•Ramasamy Suppiah•GeoJournal•1985

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