Sri Lanka is forecasting 1.080 million tonnes of paddy (rough rice) to be produced in the ‘Yala’ minor cultivation season that falls in the second half of the year, which is up 18 percent from last year output of 909,000 metric tonnes. Up to the end of May 273,471 hectares of rice had been sown, up from the last year’s extent of only 249,000 hectares amid one of the worst droughts in history.