Climate Smart Irrigated Agriculture Project Helped Sri Lanka’s Smallholder Farmers Weather the COVID-19 Pandemic
Format
The Climate Smart Irrigated Agriculture Project (CSIAP), which began in 2019 to improve productivity and climate resilience of smallholder agriculture in Sri Lanka, has played a key role in the government’s COVID-19 relief and recovery initiatives. The COVID crisis hit the agriculture sector particularly hard, with far-reaching consequences for food security and farmer’s livelihoods. In 2020, the project invested $1.72 million in five programs that prioritized high-value food crops critical for food security and income generation, benefitting 19,923 farm families.
Challenge
Since March 2020, COVID-19 has had a massive impact on Sri Lanka’s national economy in general and the agriculture sector in particular with far-reaching consequences for food supplies, incomes, livelihoods and welfare. Although the full costs are still being reckoned, it was clear th
The contribution of the rubber industry to the national economy would be enhanced by establishing rubber-related industries throughout the country, Company Estate Reforms, Tea and Rubber Estates Related Crops Cultivation and Factories Modernization and Tea and Rubber Export Promotion State Minister Kanaka Herath said recently.
The Minister was addressing the inaugural ceremony of the National Entrepreneurship Programme for the Establishment of New Rubber Related Industries. The National Programme commenced from the Kegalle District and it is planned to establish 100 new Rubber-Related Industries in the Kegalle District alone.
This programme is jointly implemented by the Industrial Development Board (IDB) in collaboration with the Rubber Development Department and the Rubber Secretariat under the supervision of the State Ministry of Plantations. It is proposed to implement such programmes especially in the rubber growing districts, which will provide the entrepreneurs aspiring to en