Impact of Floods on Productivity in Tea Smallholdings: A Case Study on Lands affected by 2017 Floods in Kaluganga River Basin in Ratnapura District of Sri Lanka

In Sri Lanka, flood incidences have frequently been experienced in low country districts and tea smallholdings in low-lying areas are affected often. A plant may undergo stress situations due to inhibition of metabolic activities as a result of submergence.   
This work aims to study the effects of flood on productivity related attributes of tea in smallholding sector, based on the flood incident occurred in 2017 in Ratnapura district. Using the baseline data collected by the Tea Small Holding Development Authority, this study was conducted in seven Tea Inspector (TI) ranges in Ratnapura district.  Data were collected using a structured questionnaire from a sample of 98 smallholdings selected on the stratified and random manner and analyzed using descriptive and spearmen correlation tests.  
The most of the affected land were located very close to Kaluganga or its tributaries and most of them were completely submerged.  Almost half the affected tea holdings have been submerged more than five days period. The silt that was deposited on the foliage was mostly, remained 2– 4 weeks period. Tea bushes showed multiple responses to the stress situation (defoliation, wilting and rotting).  More than 20% foliage was fallen in 40% of the flooded tea lands while, 20% of the flooded land shown the defoliation of more than 50%. Defoliation is negatively correlated with age of tea. More than 20% casualties were reported in 40% of the affected holdings and which is negatively correlate with age. This study recognizes the ability of TRI 2023 which can withstand in flood hazards. Majority of the affected holdings have shown the very slow recovery even after 6 months. It was estimated that tea yield of affected holdings has dropped by 65% when compare with the previous yield in the study area and has a correlation with flooding duration.