Presented at the Pulses for Sustainable Agriculture and Human Health” on 31 May-1 June 2016 at NASC, New Delhi, India. The conference was jointly organised by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS), TCi of Cornell University (TCi-CU) and Agriculture Today.

1. Rohan Rajapakse, Janakie Rajapakse and Frank Niranjan
University of Ruhuna, Department of Agriculture, Sri Lanka Council of
Agriculture Research Policy
CLIMATE CHANGE AND
PULSE PRODUCTION: ITS
IMPACT IN SRI LANKA

2. APWSS 2011, Cairns, Australia, 26-29 Sep 2011
Overview of Presentation
Introduction to Pulse Production
• Climate Change: Vulnerability of 3 districts
• Impact of Climate Change in Agriculture
• Experiments performed
• Screening of Pulse cultivars

3. APWSS 2011, Cairns, Australia, 26-29 Sep 2011
Sri Lanka – ‘Pearl of the Indian Ocean’
 Both rural and urban people value plants
 Possibly, reflecting hydrological
civilisations of the past 2500 years
 Possibly, buddhism (dominant religion)
 Pulses are popularly grown
pulse crops of DZ of Sri Lanka

4. APWSS 2011, Cairns, Australia, 26-29 Sep 2011
 Respect for plants is culturally inscribed
 Several Kings of the past were doctors in
traditional medicine
 Utilization of plant resources for human welfare
is natural
 Climate favors a very rich diversity of plants to
grow
 Recognized Biodiversity ‘hot spot’
Colombo
Anuradhapura
Sigiriya
Kandy
Famous for an ancient Civilization, World Heritage,
Natural Beauty, Tea and Buddhism !

5. Mung bean or Green gram
Cowpea
Popularly Grown grain Legume Crops in the DZ of Sri Lanka
Agro ecological regional Map of Sri Lanka.
1L Region – These crops are cultivated under rained conditions
DL 1 and DLS Region – Cultivation only in Major Maha season
Both crops are cultivated in the upper slopes as a highland crop.
However tremendous potential to grow these in rice lands during Yala
Season where paddy fields are being fallowed due to shortage of water.

6. Increased Evidence of Global Climate
Change
1. Temperature Rise
2. Sea level rise
3. Droughts
4. Floods
5. Hurricanes
6. Landslides
In Sri Lanka 71% agricultural Land holdings are less than one acre
66% of cropland is Rain fed.
Hence increasingly vulnerable to climate variability. This
presentation aims to improve the understanding of climate change
and its implication for the Pulse sector of Sri Lanka.

7. Based in ecological parameters Rf, Soil type and
Topography.
Sri Lanka is divided into 3 Principal agro ecological zones
WZ, IZ and DZ

8. Sri Lanka the climatic factor that has
the greatest impact in Rainfall.
Two Main Monsoonal Seasons – SWM
May – Sep NEM (Dec - Feb)
Climate change is more severe on Non
Plantation Agriculture – because
majority of farmers are small holders
and predominantly cultivate Rice and
Pulses.

9. Materials and Methods
Overall objective – improve understanding of the climate change
(CC) and its impact on rural poor.
Identify the best practices and institutional innovations for
mitigating the effects of CC ,develop strategies to address social
economic problems relating to CC.
SLCARP with ICRISAT performed a study on CC in 3 districts of DZ
– Puttalam, Hambantota and Anuradhapura.
1. Climate change analysis
2. Map vulnerability for Agriculture
3. Study Basic Climate trends

10. Based on the strategy it was felt the need to
introduce high yielding of Pulse varieties for
these Poor farmers engaged in Agriculture for
livelihood
Experiments were done in DZRS during 2007 –
2012

11. Results and Discussion
SLCARP and ICRISAT research revealed
1. Minimum and maximum temperature have increased
2. Extreme temperature also increased with increase of temparature
3. Behavior of Rf pattern erratic; Decadal variability has decreased,
Inter seasonal variability is high.
4. Onset and withdrawal of Yala and Maha seasons delayed by 3 – 4
weeks.
5. Agricultural drought – 19 times in Yala (1977 - 2008)
2 times in Maha
6. Supplementary irrigation requirements has increased especially
for Yala season
7. Social survey
a). Alternative forms of agriculture changed from seasonal
crops to Perennial crops due to drought.

12. b). Government aid and subside required during critical periods
c). Prefer collective actions in Agriculture, social and economic
events
d). Vulnerability index – Some districts remains critically
vulnerable to CC.

13. Recommendations
1. Enhance the knowledge of farmers about weather and
climate – grass root applications are recommended.
2. Screen and release suitable Pulse varieties
3. Pulse varieties screened thought the DZ stations under rain
fed conditions.

14. Release of 3 Mung bean varieties – MI5, MI6 and Ari
2 Soybean varieties PM13 and PB1
2 Black gram varieties MI 1 and Anuradha
7 Cowpea varieties Dhawala, MI 35, Waruni, Wijaya,
Bombay,Arlington and ANKCP 1
This is a milestones in National Pulse Crop Research Program
conducted by DA for Rain fed Yala season
A third season is identified
a). End of Yala season – Brief Interval
Beginning of Maha season
b). End of Maha and Beginning of Yala – A third season.
Here the Pulse varieties are grown in stubble.
Therefore shortage high yielding lines are required.

15. A program by DA in 2011 has selected 2 promising Mungbean
lines for cultivation in third season which exhibit high level
tolerance to water stress.
These elite lines has the ability to produce 80% of the potential
harvest at the First Pick and uniformity of seed color remains for
long period of time.

16. • The identified varieties of Mungbean for
Climate Change is as follows to be released
• MB48, MB43
• The basic characteristics of above two Mung
bean lines is their ability to exhibit uniform
maturity and give 80% of the total yield at the
first pick. Both are extremely short aged
(55days) and retain the seed colour for a long
period of time

34. Thank you