The World Bank MD and high level delegation visit the first ever FTS at Thirappane

World Bank Managing Director for Operations Ms. Anna Bjerde and Regional Vice-President South Asia Dr. Martin Raiser with the delegation from the World Bank, Asia Development Bank, JICA and USAID visited the Climate Smart Farmer Training School (FTS) in Thirappane yesterday (29th). The FTS was established for framer leaders by the Climate Smart Irrigated Agriculture Project (CSIAP).  The purpose of their visit was to observe how the  FTS  is running to promote Climate Smart Agriculture and assess the progress of the CSIAP. This Farmer Training School will play a pivotal role in training and equipping farmers with hands-on experience in Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) practices and cutting-edge agricultural technologies. According to the World Bank, the FTS at Thirappane is the first school established in South Asia to promote climate-smart agriculture.

The CSIAP Project Director Eng. R.M.B. Rajakaruna welcomed distinguished guests and presented the progress achieved so far and how the CSIAP moves forward to meet project objectives. Addressing the audience Ms. Bjerde Said the significance of a school for farmers in the region, focusing on climate-smart agriculture. She highlighted the changing weather patterns caused by climate change and how this school is equipping farmers with techniques to enhance productivity and resilience in crop production. She also mentioned three major benefits of this project: the transition to renewable energy, particularly solar power; increased and stable livelihoods, enabling children to access education, including higher education; and diversified and sustainable crop yields, ensuring better nutrition. She expressed pride in the World Bank’s support for this project and emphasised the need for more initiatives like this to address the challenges posed by climate change, both through mitigation and adaptation efforts. She hoped that the project could be sustained by building on the lessons and experiences demonstrating the positive impact on changing the lives and livelihoods of farmer communities.

Farmers who had undergone the three-day residential training programme on  Climate Smart Irrigated Agriculture at the Farmer Training School received certificates during this event. Among those who attended the event were Agriculture and Plantation Industries Minister Hon. Mahinda Amaraweera, State Minister of Finance Hon. Shehan Semasinghe, Former Minister Hon. Duminda Dissanayake, Asian Development Bank Country Director  Mr. Takafumi Kadono, World Bank Country Director for Nepal, Maldives and Sri Lanka Mr. Faris Hadad – Zervos, Country Manager for Sri Lanka and the Maldives Ms. Chiyo Kanda, USAID Deputy Assistant Administrator Ms. Anjali Kaur, JICA Senior Vice President Ms. Sachiko Imoto, Mr. Janaka Dharmakeerthi, Secretary and Ms. Latheesha Liyanage, Additional Secretary (Development) of the Ministry of Agriculture, officials of implementing agencies and CSIAP.

Memories of the World Bank MD and high level delegation's visit to the FTS

Memories of the World Bank Managing Director for Operations Ms. Anna Bjerde and Regional Vice-President South Asia Dr. Martin Raiser with the delegation from the World Bank, Asia Development Bank, JICA and USAID’s visit to the Climate Smart Farmer Training School (FTS), in Thirappane yesterday (29th). The FTS was established by the Climate Smart Irrigated Agriculture Project. 

The progress review meeting of the CSIAP held at the MoA

 
The progress review meeting for monitoring and discussing the progress of the Climate Smart Irrigated Agriculture Project (CSIAP) that the ministry is overseeing was held this morning at the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA). This meeting is crucial for ensuring that CSIAP’s under the ministry's purview align with its strategic objectives and are carried out effectively.  During this meeting  Ministry assessed the current status of the CSIAP, discussed achievements, and challenges, and made necessary adjustments. This meeting was chaired by Mr. Gunadasa Samarasinghe, Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture with the participation of Ms. Lathisha Liyanage, Additional Secretary (Development), Ms. Dilupa Ambeypitiya, Deputy Director (Development)  and Senior Officials of the MoA.  Eng, R.M.B. Rajakaruna, Project Director, CSIAP attended this meeting with Subject Specialists and Officers of the CSIAP. Please click Images to see more photos of this event.

Photographs by Nikeshala Kodithuwakku

The instruction of 'Agro Bizz' to the CSIAP farming families in the project areas

The 'Agro Bizz' application is introduced to the farmers by  the Climate Smart Irrigated Agriculture Project (CSIAP)  to sell their agricultural products at a fair price by avoiding middlemen. Selected representatives from Hambantota, Monaragala, Kurunegala, Puttalam, Anuradhapura, Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu, Trincomalee Batticaloa and Ampara, where the CSIAP is being implemented, have been trained. In a discussion held between World Bank officials, CSIAP officials and 'Celata Tech' company officials, it has been agreed to provide this application for free to about 70,000 project beneficiary farmers. Accordingly, a series of training programmes for selected representatives from the 11 districts under the project area as trainers have been started. On behalf of 'Celata Tech' Mr. Dinesh Denipitiya and Mr. Ravindra Prasanna conducted training programmes.

Story and Photographs by Nikeshala Kodithuwakku, PMU, CSIAP

The CSIAP plans to install 261 mobile elephant electric fencing at a cost of Rs 475m

The Climate Smart Irrigated Agriculture Project (CSIAP) funded by the World Bank has teamed up with the Centre for Conservation and Research (CCR) to install 261 mobile elephant electric fencing or seasonal electric fencing, which could be deployed by farmers at the start of cultivation and removed and stored after harvest, at a cost of Rs 475 million to mitigate the human-elephant conflict in the project area where the CSIAP is being implemented.

In order to reduce the human-elephant-conflict in the project areas,  theses electric fences are installed in the area before starting the cultivation and it will be uninstalled  again after harvesting. The Climate Smart Irrigation Agriculture Project emphasizes that the use of community-based seasonal electric fencing has been shown to be very effective in safeguarding paddy cultivations from elephant depredation. The human-elephant conflict is significant in all the CSIAP’s hotspot areas because the cultivation in the hotspot area is often threatened by wild animals, especially elephants. 

This programme is being implemented in 08 districts of Anuradhapura, Kurunegala, Puttalam, Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu, Trincomalee, Monaragala and Hambantota where the CSIAP is being implemented. Under this project, 261 fences for 1109.3 km covering 77854.8 ha paddy fields in  128 Grama Niladhari Division areas of  34 Agrarian Service Divisions. The estimated budget for this is Rs. 475 million and 18905 farming families will benefit.

On behalf of the CSIAP, the Department of Agrarian Department (DAD) will implement an erecting electric fencing programme and for this purpose, DAD has issued a circular to establish an institutional mechanism.  The fences will be entirely powered by solar energy. This project strives to assist farmers in the project area to protect their crops from wild elephants that frequent the area – often causing heavy damage to paddy and other crops. The Versatile Field Fences are easy to erect and the farmers are taught how to make these by the CCR.

The fences stay up until the harvest is taken. Hen farmers remove them afterwards and free up land for wild animals to eat. Again, erect fences for the next crop season. The massive human-elephant conflict has now climbed to a high level, taking many human lives and elephant deaths annually making Sri Lanka the highest annual elephant deaths and second-highest human deaths due to HEC. In 2019, the human-elephant conflict reached record heights in Sri Lanka with the death of 121 people and 405 elephants.

 With this project, the CSIAP hopes to minimize the destruction of crops by a significant percentage and also diversify crops by the use of abandoned farmland due to elephant crop raiding. The project will be implemented under the guidance of Dr. Prithviraj Fernando and his team at the Centre for Conservation and Research.