Food & Climate
Farmers in Sri Lanka have succeeded in producing an amount of eggplant from a quarter of an acre, equivalent to a full acre, according to Nirosha Dilmini, who begins harvesting since crack of dawn on her small plot of land in the village of Tanamalvila in southeastern the country Monaragala district.
She’s been putting her efforts into farming here for six years now. But never has she had such a lucrative year as 2023 in terms of produce and profits.
“The quarter acre of our land yielded produce equivalent to that of one acre,” she said, according to report seen by “Food & Climate” platform.
She attributes this transformation to the Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) programme implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) with funding from the United Nations Sri Lanka Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Fund.
Nirosha is one of 645 Sri Lankan farmers across three districts who were trained under the programme and provided with equipment and technical packages to modernize their farming practices and increase their yields and profits.
Through an FAO- facilitated Farmer Field School, farmers were trained in GAP principles including environmental sustainability, food safety and quality, economic viability and social acceptability.
Sri Lanka’s economic crisis
The GAP programme started as a response to the pressing food security challenges amidst Sri Lanka’s economic crisis, supporting vegetable farmers to commercialize their products.
Sri Lanka, located in South Asia, north of the Indian Ocean off the coast of India, declared bankruptcy in April 2024.
Nirosha and her fellow farmers each received an agriculture kit containing essential items such as a drip irrigation system, plastic mulch and insect-proof netting. The kit aims to reduce the cost of cultivation and help make more efficient use of crucial resources such as fertilizers, weed killers, pesticides and water.
The farmers were also trained in GAP principles including environmental sustainability, food safety and quality, economic viability and social acceptability through a Farmer Field School (FFS) facilitated by FAO. This immersive training not only equipped them with the necessary knowledge for national GAP certification but also enabled them to implement the modern agricultural techniques, such as drip irrigation systems, insect netting and plastic mulching, effectively.
She elaborates, “Previously, it took an entire day to fertilize our land. Now, a single 20-liter fertilizer bucket covers over 500 crops, saving us time, effort and money. The mulch also curtails weed growth, further lightening our workload.”
Also, Nirosha says that while the time between the two annual monsoon cultivation seasons, from the end of May to August, used to see her struggling to make ends meet, the modern techniques she learned have allowed her to cultivate the land throughout 2023, turning a profit even during the off-season.
“We can now cover vast areas with minimal water, maximizing productivity even in challenging weather conditions.”
Watermelon cultivation
For the past 11 months post-GAP training, Nirosha’s primary crop has been eggplants with a few patches of okra and green beans. As the annual cycle nears its end, she prepares to harvest the last of her eggplants and embark on a new venture with watermelon cultivation.
“I plan to clear the ground and start an interim watermelon crop with the existing equipment,” she concludes optimistically. “With continued support from FAO, the livelihoods of farmers like us can exponentially improve.”
GAP has also significantly increased the incomes of farmers. At the end of the project indicates, 32 percent of the farmers had increased their income by a minimum of approximately $ 65 (LKR 20000) per 0.25 acre farmland per month.
Apart from the new learnings and equipment provided, another very important gain was the connections established with leading supermarket chains, where the farmers could sell their bumper crops in bulk and make larger profits. Additionally, innovative extension approaches using social media platforms along with exposure visits to existing GAP farms, facilitate avenues for knowledge sharing and skill development among farmers.