Sustainable agriculture land use planning to mitigate the problem of climate change in the Dry Zone Area of Sri Lanka

Abstract

Climate change is the most persistent of altered regimes of natural hazard occurrence, and therefore it can be conceptualized as a disaster management issue in sectors such as agriculture, water, fisheries and industry. Generally, drought is a regular event in Sri Lanka, where most of the the year there is scarcity of water for a considerable time. From May to September the entire dry zone is very vulnerable to dry spells or, occasionally, drought. Drought but also dry spells are serious problems that set back the economic and status of Dry Zone. There is therefore a new imperative need to link sustainable agriculture land use planning, mitigation and climate change as part of an integrated package to address disaster management in a holistic manner.