DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME OF CEYLON

Description of the Programme 3. The main features and cost of the programme are indicated in the following table: Table 14. —Ceylon: Analysis of Programme Rs. million £ million Percentage Agriculture 503 38 37 Transport and communications — Railways 30 Roads 100 y 297 22 22 Ports and harbours 167 J Power 109 8 8 Industry 75 6 6 Social capital— Housing 471 Health 132 >- 375 28 27 Education 196 J Total 1,359 102 100 4. Agriculture.—Two-thirds of the population at present live in the zone of heavy rain in the West of the Island, crowded into a little less than one-third of its area. Pressure on land in this wet zone can best be relieved by migration to the more sparsely inhabited dry zone in the Eastern and North Central parts from which, as from the rest of the Island, malaria has been almost eliminated since the war. It is in this area that all the major projects for land development are being undertaken by the Government. The total acreage at present cultivated is 3,250,000; it is estimated that another 3,250,000 acres are potentially available for cultivation. For the present purpose it is particularly significant to note that of the area now cultivated over 2,000,000 acres are devoted to the production of the three primary products, tea, rubber and coconut, leaving only about 1,000,000 acres for food production. By 1957 it is planned to have under food crops another 200,000 to 250,000 acres —an increase of about 20 per cent, on the present food-producing areas, from which it is expected to get 75,000 tons of rice annually. This figure includes 131,000 acres covered by the Government's existing development plan, which is due to be completed in 1953. In all these land development projects serious difficulties are involved in clearing the virgin jungle which at present dominates these areas. Work on the new land has already started, and the target of about a 20 per cent, increase in the food-producing area by 1957 is considered to be realistic. 5. The largest of the projects, which is being carried out under the direction of United States engineering firms, involves the damming of the Gal Oya in the Eastern Province, from which it is hoped to irrigate 100,000 acres now under jungle, and to improve the irrigation of 30,000 acres already cultivated so that two crops a year may be harvested instead of one as at present. It is planned in this new area to provide 21,000 peasant holdings. A similar project at Huruluwewa is to provide water for 10,000 acres of paddy land and 6,000 acres for garden crops. The Gal Oya project will not be fully completed until 1962, and an even longer-term project—not to be begun until 1952 —is the damming of the Walawe Ganga, to irrigate 40,000 acres of new land, to ensure supplies of water to 13,000 acres of existing paddy land and to produce 10,000 kilowatts of electric power. A further 24,000 acres of garden land will also be developed.

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