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by Derrick Schokman

The Kalpitiya peninsula is a sandy stretch of land about 30 miles long and 4-5 miles wide on the west coast of the Puttalam District, surrounded by the lagoon on one side and the Indian Ocean on the other.

Kalpitiya - peninsula of possibilities

Looking across the lagoon from the Peninsula are the red soils of the mainland where the legendary Prince Vijaya and his followers are said to have landed in the 5th century BC and called it Thambapanni, after they threw themselves down sick and exhausted and found the palms of their hands stained red from soil. Vijaya and other migratory bands who followed, worked their way inland establishing settlements which finally led to the development of the Anuradhapura Kingdom.

The Kalpitiya Peninsula, however, remained undeveloped. In about the 7th century AD Arab traders began to use the port in the North as a trading centre, exchanging their goods for arecanuts and salt from the Palavi salterns in the South of the Peninsula.

The Portuguese and later the Dutch continued this trade, the Dutch even building a small fort to protect their interests.

When the British attacked the Dutch coming down from Jaffna along the coast, the little fort offered no resistance as it was weak and badly designed. As a result, it still stands there today in a fairly good preserved condition.

Except for these trading activities the rest of the Peninsula remained undeveloped - a combination of piled up sand dunes on the sea side and a black flat land with scrub vegetation that could hardly provide enough provender for the wild donkeys and goats that roamed there.

There was some coconut in the South of the Peninsula, and the north became known as a fishing centre. Even today it is a well fancied market for dried fish. But otherwise there was no tradition of farming as such. That is, until an all the year round supply of fresh water was found to be available under the burning sands on the surface. Early settlers digging shallow pits by a beach found the water to be fresh instead of brackish. They used this water for domestic purposes.

Even today in the little village of Udappu at the foot of the Peninsula, you will see women doing this and carrying two and three pots of water balanced on their heads. Later on the settlers found that they could dig shallow wells to water whatever food crops they grew. And still later they started using pumps to raise the water from 50-60 foot deep wells and spray it on the crops like you water your plants in the garden with a hose. How was this possible? In most coasted areas rock underlies the soil above. But in the Kalpitiya peninsula by a freak of nature there is underlying rock, only the sea. Rain that fell over the centuries filtered through the coarse sands and formed a layer of fresh water on the sea water. The difference in the densities of the two types of water prevented mixing.

Regosols

The regosols - that is the scientific name for these sandy soils that overlie an abundant supply of fresh water-are physically fertile (excluding the sand dunes). People in this area have been able to exploit this God-given gift of physically fertile soil and fresh water to grow a variety of crops.

Among the first crops they cultivated were achieving tobacco for which there was a good market in Jaffna, a capsicum (malu miris) that could be harvested over a whole year unlike other malu - miris varieties that were finished in 5 to 6 months.

And most importantly, they cultivated a red onion (shallot) variety known as 'vedalam' which had multiple uses. It could be harvested as a spring onion and later as mature bulb. Allowed to flower the stalks could be marketed. And when the flowers matured, viable seed was produced which could be used for planting instead of bulbs, thereby reducing the costs of production substantially.

Finally the Puttalam District Extension Division of the Department of Agriculture stepped into introduce new high-yielding vegetable varieties and high value crops like big onion, and even potato that could be grown successfully from November to February when cool nights prevail.

Although irrigation costs are high because of the sandy nature of the soil, there are low cost compensations in land preparation and weeding. More importantly with an year round supply of water farmers are not bound by seasonal rains. They are able to get premium prices by producing for the off-season market. Yes indeed! Thanks to the magic of all the year round irrigation, farmers have been able to convert a bleak landscape into a thriving oasis.

Kalpitiya farmers are accordingly among the richest in this country. Their economic status is evidenced in the tractors, irrigation pumps and other machinery they posses, the vans and motor cycles that they own, substantial houses they live in and the numerous TV antenna spiking the skyline.

Well warned

All's well that ends well. But a word of caution.

There is a danger that in the effort to get even richer, farmers will sink too many wells too close together to upset the existing stable water balance between sea water and fresh water underground. If this is allowed to happen brackish water will result, upsetting the prosperity that has been achieved. It is essential therefore to keep a continuous check on the quality of water.

At one time Research Officers in the Department of Agriculture used to do this. We must hope that they still continue to do so because the future well-being of the Kalpitiya Peninsula for agriculture will depend on such monitoring and necessary action to preserve its freshness.

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Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
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