CSIAP trains over 1,900 farmer leaders with World Bank assistance

The Climate Smart Irrigated Agriculture Project trained 1,966 farmer leaders to impart knowledge on Climate Smart Agriculture to around 19,600 farmers.

The Climate Smart Agriculture Project (CSIAP) built a Climate-Smart Agriculture Farmer Training School for the first time in South Asia in an area of three acres in Thirpappane, Anuradhapura district at a cost of Rs. 117 Mn with the support of the World Bank to promote Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) in Sri Lanka. A total of 1,966 farmer leaders including 788 women farmer leaders have been trained in 86 training programmes to disseminate the knowledge, that they have acquired about CSA, to more than 19,600 farmers in the six provinces namely Northwest, North Central, Northern, Eastern, Uva and Southern Provinces where the CSIAP is being implemented.

The CSIAP Project, implemented under the Agriculture, Lands, Livestock, Irrigation, Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Ministry, aims to guide the farming community living in the project area to use CSA technologies and train them to cope with and adapt to the adverse effects of climate change by building this training school. Training sessions are also conducted for technical personnel during the project period.

The construction of the Farmer Training School started on December 22, 2021 and was opened on December 4, 2022. The coordinator of this school, Sajith Ekanayake, says that the school is used to train farmers to give hands-on experience in CSA practices and technologies and address challenges to climate change mitigation, adaptation, and food security.

The CSIAP has planned to establish a platform for the dissemination of CSA knowledge in the village and provide beneficiaries living in the areas where they are experiencing climate change with CSA technology by covering all 47 agricultural service centre divisions. Eventually, the CSIAP envisages dissemination of CSA technologies and practices among entire farming communities that are vulnerable to the effects of climate change in the country through the intervention of officials from the Agriculture Department.

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