SRI LANKA COUNTRY PROFILE

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CP2002-SRI LANKA PAGE 77 Of 106
programmes include agricultural marketing, Ag. input supplies, soil conservation, watershed management,
environmental protection, income generation, rural savings and credit, irrigation water management, irrigation
system maintenance and formation of farmer companies to deal with the changing world. NGOs implement variety
of farmer strengthening programmes almost in all administrative districts. Many farmer strengthening programmes
of the NGOs are related to income enhancement activities of farmers. DAS plans to form and strengthen farmer
organizations in all farming areas of the county in recent future with the assistance of other related agencies.
Capacity-Building, Education, Training and Awareness-Raising: Many educational activities related to farmer
strengthening programmes are being carried out both by the governmental organizations and none-governmental
organizations during the last ten years. Hector Kobbekaduwa Agrarian Research and Training Institute (HARTI),
Rural Development Training and Research Institute (RDTRI) and Galgamuwa Irrigation Training Institute (GITI)
are the most prominent training organizations in this field. Training on Social Mobilization and Catalytic
Intervention are newly introduced curricula for farmer strengthening programmes. Capacity building is an essential
requirement both for farmers and programme implementers. During the last decade, a verity of actions has been
taken to build the capacities of those parties. Leadership training programmes for farmers, training for
entrepreneurial activities for farming communities, rural institution building training, training for savings and
credits programmes are some of the important areas where capacities were developed among the farmers. Farmer
organizational mechanism itself has become the key instrument for building the capacities of farming communities.
In addition, ID, DA, DAS, Mahaweli Authority and IMD have taken more concrete actions to build the capacities
of government sector stakeholders who involve in farmer strengthening programmes. Information: Information
related to farmer-strengthening programmes is readily available from the DAS and IMD. In addition, HARTI data
bank, and information of RDTRI can also be considered as rich sources of information for farmer strengthening
programmes. Information dissemination among the relevant agencies is being done through periodic seminars and
training workshops. The principle mechanism of information gathering has become the regular record keeping
programmes of relevant agencies. Research and Technology: In general, researches on farmer strengthening
programmes are not done by the implementing agencies themselves. All recorded research exercises in the area of
farmer strengthening programmes in Sri Lanka up to now have been reported from various research organizations
like HARTI and RDTRI. However, some pilot experiments, which can't be labeled as pure research, are conducted
by the implementing agencies too for further improvements of their on going programmes. Currently, IMD is
conducting a pilot test on Farmer Companies in one of the selected major irrigation systems of the country for
strengthening the role of farmers. Financing: Since government organizations are handling farmer-strengthening
programmes into a greater extent, the government of Sri Lanka plays a major role in financing them. For example,
farmer-strengthening programmes of DAS, IMD, ID and Mahaweli Authority are run using the government
finance. Farmer strengthening programmes of NGOs are funded by their own. In many instances, both government
and NGOs obtain financial assistance from foreign agencies for running the programmes. Some of the foreign
assistance sources are; IBRD, USAID, CIRDAP, and APO. Cooperation: Regional cooperation is available for the
field in terms of dissemination of new information through international training workshops, seminars etc. Other
than this, international or regional bilateral programmes are not in practice in this field.
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