Sri Lanka, Dec. 18 -- New data from the Department of Agriculture, compiled with support from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), highlights the extensive scale of damage caused to Sri Lanka's agricultural sector by recent flooding. Detailed maps and analysis illustrate the impact on paddy, vegetables, and other field crops across affected regions.

Several major agricultural districts experienced significant destruction, with Batticaloa, Anuradhapura, Puttalam, and Polonnaruwa recording near-total flooding of over 75% of their paddy lands.

In Trincomalee and Batticaloa alone, approximately 58,340 hectares of paddy fields were impacted. Official figures indicate that nationwide, over 100,000 hectares of rice paddies and thousand...