Sri Lanka Farmers Earn a Premium for Produce by Mobile Use

27th October 2010, www.lankabusinessonline.com

Use of mobile phones has helped Sri Lankan farmers get better prices for their produce and the technology can help reduce poverty, according to a new United Nations study, officials said.

"There is an informational dimension to poverty - poor people need lots of information for their livelihoods such as on market prices, inputs, weather," said Sriganesh Lokanathan of LIRNEasia, a think tank which helped prepare the report by United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.

A study done by LIRNEasia on small farmers in Dambulla, an agricultural centre in central Sri Lanka, found that 11 percent of their cost of production goes towards information search, "quite a high percentage," Lokanathan said.

"Information communications technologies (ICTs) have a role in trying to bridge this information gap," he told a news conference held to launch the UNCTAD report called 'Information Economy Report 2010: ICTs, Enterprise and Poverty Alleviation'.

"Without it the vulnerability of poor people increases. ICT can give them pertinent information in time and as accurately as possible."

A study by LIRNEasia this year found that farmers with access to 'Tradenet', a local service that gives prices through mobile phones, are able to earn a premium for their produce.

"By just having market price information several times a day they get premium of 23.4 percent on the average price," said Lokanathan. "So there are real impacts ICTs are having."

The increased access to information through mobile phones has enabled farmers to explore cultivation of different crops and to grow higher value ones that increase incomes and get crop advisory services.

Lokanathan said the potential for ICTs like mobile phones to alleviate poverty in the least developing countries was high as in most LDCs half the rural population is not covered.

But he said it was important to ensure such ICTs were affordable and the experience of South Asia, which has the lowest mobile phone rates, could be useful for other countries.

The UNCTAD report suggests encouraging improving mobile coverage in rural areas and making them more affordable, Lokanathan said.

The report focussed on ICT adoption by poor people, or what's known as BOP - bottom of the pyramid.

"More demand-driven intervention is needed. Policymakers need to better understand local needs," he said. "They need to be aware of what works and what does not in the local context."

The UNCTAD report looks at how ICT can be used in enterprises poor people engage in like fishing and farming and how the poor can be involved in the ICT sector itself, such as selling phone reloads.

Related Info:
Dialog Tradenet - Agricultural Produce Price Information in Sinhala

Sri Lanka Cargills and Northern Farmers come to Verbal Forward Contracts on Their Produce

13th October 2010, www.lankabusinessonline.com

Sri Lanka's Cargills, the island's largest retail chain said it had added farmers from the former war-torn north to its country wide network that keeps its outlets supplied with fruits and vegetables.

"We have added 1,600 farmers from the North," Cargills chief Ranjith Page told the annual annual sessions of Sri Lanka's Institute of Certified Professional Managers.

The firm already has a network of 10,000 which is growing fresh produce for its retail chain.

Page said the farmers came from Kilinochchi, Mulaitivu and Jaffna.

Almost the entire population of Kilinochchi and Mulaitivu were in refugee camps after a 30-year war ended in May 2009.

Jaffna had been under central government control for some time.

The government has since re-settled most of them. The government, donors and charities are helping them rebuild their lives and livelihoods.

Page said the firm had cut post harvest losses, which is a key problem in Sri Lanka's fresh product supply chain.

Page said Cargills had 'verbal' forward contracts with the farmers around the country to buy their produce. Some farmers feared paper contracts.

It was necessary to understand the psychology of rural farmers before dealing with them, he said.

New Cashew Plantations in Eastern Sri Lanka

03rd May 2010, www.news.lk

Plans have been drawn to promote Cashew cultivation in hundreds of acres in the East.

The East is experiencing a resurgence following the elimination of terrorism. While the people are returning to their normal livelihoods with the strength extended by the Government, new cultivations are also being launched in the area.

Many fallow lands are being utilized for cashew cultivation. Another 600 acres selected under the cultivation drive of the Government are also coming under Cashew cultivation. This would improve the economy of the farmers in the East.

6,000 Farmers to Benefit by Rehabilitation of Largest Tank in Northern Sri Lanka

06th March 2010, www.dailynews.lk, By Anura Maitipe

The Northern Re-awakening Project has taken initiatives to rehabilitate Iranamadu Tank at a cost of Rs. 200 million with World Bank assistance to provide irrigation facilities to resettled families in the Kilinochchi district, Project Director PH Sugathadasa said.

The tank located in the Northern part of the district is the main irrigation tank in the province.

earlier it had provided irrigation facilities to over 8,000 hectares under gravity irrigation and another 455 hectares under lift irrigation system.

However, the war situation had caused severe damage to this tank. As a result the cultivatable land extent of this tank has reduced from 8,455 to 3,000 hectares, he said. This tank originally built by the Dutch with a capacity of 49 million cubic meters of water (MCM) was taken over by the Irrigation Department. The Department has increased the tank capacity to 131 MCM in three stages, he added.

The rehabilitation work will commence soon.

Over 6,000 farmer families in Kilinochchi will benefit. It will also be a permanent solution for the drinking water problem of the Jaffna Peninsula, he noted.

Human-Elephant Conflict: Farmers in Sri Lanka to be Trained to Tackle Wild Elephants

22nd January 2010, firstlanka.com

Rural farmers living close to forest areas inhabited by wild elephants are to be taught to manage human animal conflicts through a new model dairy pilot project.

Its promoters Exetel, an Australian IT firm that runs a Call Centre in Sri Lanka and the Sri Lanka Wildlife Conservation Society, said they are to set up a model dairy farm in Wasgamuwa in Central Sri Lanka.

The 300,000 dollar farm will be used to demonstrate good livestock management practices among villages and assist in the supply of state veterinary services.

The farm is also expected to reduce human-elephant conflicts in the area, by introducing more compatible agricultural practices.

Agriculture is the country’s main rural industry, with most rural farmers surviving on the cultivation of cash crops such as sugar cane, which is also attractive as food to wild elephants. Sri Lanka’s agriculture sector loses about 10 million dollars a year due to crop damages caused by elephants.

Livestock and elephants can co-habit however, Exetel said, and could help ease the conflict, while providing farmers with an income.

Sri Lankan Farmers Share market info on Mobiles

30h Novembr 2009, www.individual.com

A trial Sri Lankan commodity trade matching portal using mobile phones to improve marketing of farmer produce will need private sector investment to be sustainable, an official said.

Chitranganie Mubarak, a Senior Programme Head of the Information Communications Technology Agency (ICTA), said the project is part of efforts to use mobile phone and information technology to link farmers with markets.

A high proportion of farm produce in the island goes waste owing to poor post-harvest processing as well as marketing links.

Mubarak said the trial service, at present free for farmers, uses SMS (short message service) to enable farmers to link up with buyers.

Buyers and sellers must register on the SMS-enabled commodity trade matching portal.

"The system matches the farmer or seller with the buyers. Farmers can send an SMS with what they have to sell, giving their location. If a buyer also wants the same thing the portal will do the matching," Mubarak said.

The transaction is done off-line.

The system is on trial in the hill country Nuwara Eliya district through Sarvodaya, a non-governmental organisation.

"You need only a simple mobile phone to send SMS which most farmers have," said Mubarak.

Farmers have been given codes for different types of agricultural produce as well as phones under the project, funded by the ICTA's 'e-Society' project aimed at spreading the benefits of ICT.

The agency gives grants to organisations to come up with innovative applications which benefit remote rural communities.

Mubarak said private sector participation would be sought later to make the project more widely available and commercially successful.

"All e-Society projects are launched as pilot projects," Mubarak said. "Later we want the private sector to take it up more broadly. We will be looking for partners to take it up."

A fee may have to be charged for the service later to make it sustainable, she said.

"Anybody, if they seen benefits accruing directly, they are likely to pay for it," she said.

"The sustainability will come only when the farmer feels he's getting a good deal and is willing to pay for the information he gets."

She said another approach to fund the service without having to charge farmers could be to use the platform for commercial purposes relevant to farmers such as companies sending out fertiliser ads.

Norway Invests in Agri-Forestry Project Based on Out-Grower Farmer Model

11th November 2009, www.dailynews.lk

The Board of Investment of Sri Lanka granted investment approval for Pure Nature Limited to set up a project to cultivate and process fruits in Havampitiya, Moneragala. Chairman/Director General Dhammika Perera signed the agreement on behalf of the BOI and presented the BOI Certificate of Registration to the investors.

The venture is an initial investment of Rs. 75 million, sponsored by Norwegian investors. The project which will be based on the out-grower farmer model will initially provide employment for 200 out-growers.

The venture expects to expand operations to an investment of Rs. 200 million providing employment for 1000 out-grower farmers in Havampitiya, Moneragala.

The agri-forestry project would focus on growing Maize as the main crop while growing seasonal crops such as Sesame and Soya. A plantation will also be established on a 25 acre land.

He also said that Maize has a high local demand and that the company expects to export to the European and US markets. Asia Plantation Capital Directors Arne Fiortort and Arjuna Dissanayake signed the agreement on behalf of the company.

Image: Chairman/Director General Dhammika Perera BOI presents the BOI Certificate of Registration to the investors of Pure Nature Limited.

Sri Lanka Loan Scheme Helps Farmers and Fishermen in Former Northern War Zone

10th November 2009, www.lankabusinessonline.com

Farmers and fishermen have been among the main borrowers under a Sri Lankan government loan scheme to revive economic activity in the former northern war zone, the Central Bank said.

It said in a statement that a total of 1,875 loans valued at 264 million rupees has been disbursed under the 'Vadakkin Wasantham' (Awakening North) loan scheme by the state-owned People’s Bank and Bank of Ceylon.

Out of the total granted, 47 percent of loans (890) have been disbursed for agricultural purposes while 28 percent (524) were for trade and service sector activities.

"In agriculture, farmers have shown a keen interest to obtain loans for fruit cultivation, i.e. grapes and banana and livestock development activities."

The balance 25 percent (461 loans) has been obtained by borrowers in the fisheries, small and micro-industries sectors in the northern Jaffna peninsula.

The special loan package launched in July, 2009 is being implemented with loans up to 200,000 rupees being granted at an interest rate of 12 percent a year, with repayment over a period of five years.

The peninsula was cut off from the mainland for years as Tamil Tiger separatists controlled the land route.

Restrictions on fishing and farming were also imposed because of the war, affecting the livelihood of a large number of residents of Jaffna.

But the 30-year conflict ended in May when government forces defeated the Tigers, resulting in an economic revival in the north.

The Central Bank also said in addition to the loans already given under the scheme, another 5,927 people have also been registered under the two state banks and Hatton National Bank and Sanasa Development Bank for credit facilities.

It said three other credit programmes - a rural credit scheme, an agro-livestock loan scheme and a poverty alleviation microfinance project - were being implemented through participating financial institutions by the Central Bank in the Northern Province:

"With the commencement of agricultural activities for the (next) cultivation season this month, it is expected that a large volume of agricultural credit will be disbursed by PFIs in the Northern Province."