Stories

Three GN Divisions in Batticaloa District in Vavunatheevu DS Division were selected for this project and further filtered into 11 villages belonging to these GN Divisions. This project aims to provide support to farmers who suffer from fertilizer shortages by introducing a substitute crop that could be harvested at a lesser cost and within a short period. This project is funded by Palmera Projects, Australia, and is implemented with the support of SLCDF and the Rural Development Planning Organization (RDPO). Most of the farmers selected for this program cannot cultivate their usual crops using traditional methods because of the fertilizer shortage in Sri Lanka. The goals of this project are to provide training to farmers so they could cultivate groundnut as a substitute crop while providing support and exposing these rural farmers to a global market. Buyers such as Maliban and David Grams were also introduced to these farmers to sell their harvest. Necessary supplies for farming, facilitation, monitoring and training are provided on how to cultivate groundnut. Line plantation method is used to cultivate these crops. SLCDF and RDPO have arranged for a manager, 2 technical officers, and 3 field-level consultants to work on this project. They further selected 15 male and female staff each from the 3 GN Divisions to monitor the farmers.