Sri Lanka's interest in land settlement as a
development strategy started during the early decades of the
20th century. Among the objectives of establishing such
settlements were;
1 Achieving self sufficiency in food production
ii Relieving population pressures in the congested wet
zone areas.
III Preserving land
institution.
iv Achieving a balanced development from a regional
development point of view.
owning peasantry as a social
Nearly 50 years later there are now socio
economic, physical and environmental problems arising from
population pressures and the absence of the incorporation of
a sustainable manner of development in the original
settlement programmes.
The above can be deduced from several writings on
land settlement in Sri Lanka with reference to the
widespread under utilization of scarce land resources
(Farmer, 1957; Arbel, 1964; Land utilization committee,
1967; stegman 1970; Galoya project evaluation committee
report, 1970).
