In Sri Lanka over 60 percent of the total population are involved in farming and 38 percent of the total workforce are farm labours, steadily declining the agriculture contribution to GDP. Horticulture plays an important role in providing livelihood to a larger portion of poor people, increases the level of...

On August 30, 2021, Sri Lanka President Gotabaya Rajpaksa declared economic emergency. The decision was taken to curb hoarding of essential items and to control inflation, since the country is faced with a shortage of food items and a steep rise in prices of essential commodities. Sri Lanka is under a...

Different tree cropping can improve the efficiency of land-use and be an additional source of income for small-scale farmers. Rubber trees need about six years to mature, during this period, an intercropping of the land with banana trees improves both land‑use and income generation. This technology reports on the benefits...

Incorporating the SSF Guidelines into the national fisheries policy requires several rounds of engagement with state and community stakeholders. The onset of the new millennium saw the process of fisheries development taking a new path globally. It’s one with a strong emphasis on offshore and deep-sea fishing, fish exports and the...

Sri Lanka’s National Fisheries Policy needs to be remodelled to incorporate the SSF Guidelines in order to attain the goal of securing sustainable small-scale fisheries. The Ministry of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development (MFARD) of Sri Lanka recently prepared a White Paper on National Fisheries Policy in 2018, which was approved...

En Afrique de l’Ouest, l’importance économique des dégâts des mangues causés par les mouches des fruits s’accroît. Le manguier doit faire face à de nombreux problèmes phytosanitaires. L’introduction et la dispersion en Afrique d’une espèce de mouche originaire du Sri Lanka pourrait remettre en question les succès commerciaux engrangés récemment...

The history of Lanka Farmers’ Forum (LFF) draws back to the project implemented through the Medium Term Cooperation Programme (MTCP) which is supported by the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD). MTCP started as a pilot project in 2009 with farmers organizations in Asia and the Pacific. The main objective...

Welimada is a hilly area in the district of Badulla, Uva province, Sri Lanka. Growing upcountry tea and crops is the main livelihood of the 85% of the population in village. The people mainly cultivate potatoes, beans, cabbages, carrots, leeks, and beetroots. [...]

The lack of recognition by the state continues to cast women in fishing outside the net in Sri Lanka. While increasingly, around the globe, women’s participation in fisheries is being captured in government statistical records, the data on active fishers compiled by the Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources in Sri...

For centuries, farmers, herders, fishers and foresters have developed diverse and locally adapted agricultural systems managed with time tested, ingenious techniques. These practices have resulted in a vital combination of social, cultural, ecological and economic services to humankind. “Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems” (GIAHS) are outstanding landscapes of aesthetic beauty...

Fisheries co-operatives in Sri Lanka need to be restructured into true co-management platforms to ensure the sustainable use of coastal zone resources

A workshop was held in Colombo, Sri Lanka for the implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication (SSF Guidelines). The workshop, held on 28th September, 2018 was attended by 45 participants from the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquatic...

Small scale fishers are often presented or perceived as the ‘poorest of the poor’ (Bailey, 1988; Squires et al., 1998). Among small scale fishers in Sri Lanka, women involvement is significantly high as limited employment opportunities are available for them, especially in remote rural locations. Women in fishing communities have traditionally...

Every morning Helan Jasitha Fernando gets up at 2 am and walks five kilometres from her home to her fishing hut. Dressed appropriately for fishing, she puts all her equipment into her canoe and uses her bamboo paddle to propel herself and her vessel around seven kilometres out to sea,...

Fishing communities, in particular women, in Sri Lanka’s war and disaster ravaged regions require support. Sri Lanka receives many tourists from all over the world, attracted by its beautiful coasts and other natural and cultural treasures. But few people know that small-scale fishing communities in Sri Lanka face difficult challenges and...

The two studies in this report explore these issues further using empirical quantitative surveys as well as qualitative fieldwork from a cross-section of developing economies in South and SouthEast Asia. The first study is an empirical investigation of the digital gender divide amongst the poor (broadly called the Bottom of...

The analysis of survey responses shows that young farmers have different expectations and needs, depending on the region in which they live, the agricultural sector in which they work (intensive, extensive), their level of education, their relation to the farm (owner of the farm or not) etc. This study revealed...

 Women in Asia are, in most cases, the farmers. But more than that, they are concerned about the nutrition of their families. There are actually more women interested in the models of agriculture that support diversity and nutrition. There are many cases of women who are fighting for land, particularly...

This document provides lessons learned (good and bad) from three years of RFLP field activities on mainstreaming gender across the six collaborating RFLP countries, namely Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Timor-Leste and Vietnam

This book documents a unique series of 19 case studies where agricultural biotechnologies were used to serve the needs of smallholders in developing countries. They cover different regions, production systems, species and underlying socio-economic conditions in the crop (seven case studies), livestock (seven) and aquaculture/fisheries (five) sectors. Most of the...