In the village of Rahathungoda in Nuwaraeliya District, Sri Lanka during the harvest season, many farmers are ‘ensnared’ by intermediary sellers that purchase their vegetables on despoiling low rates. Because of this, farmers fall into a helpless and desolated situation. Sometimes, they could not even earn back the money they invested in their farms.
To overcome this problem, thirty-three farmers gathered and started dehydrating their vegetable produce whenever the price in the market goes down. This way, the produce can be kept for a long time in good condition.
In 2014, Sri Lanka Farmers’ Forum (LFF) intervened to search for a better and sustainable solution for the farmers’ problems. They recommended to the farmers to produce various food products from the dehydrated vegetables but without using chemicals. They introduced manufacturing systems for dehydrated ready-made products instead of selling fresh vegetables. LFF also supplied drier machines and other equipment for the farmers.
Under the MTCP2 Program, LFF provided training on cultivation of conventional crops without using chemicals and pesticides, producing dehydrated ready-made products, as well as several business training to further help the farmers. After the training, the farmers were able to produce 1,000 kilograms of dehydrated vegetables for vegetable soup and other Ayurvedic products.
This is only the start. Through these initiatives, LFF was able to take specified financial rate for the vegetables and thus, contributing to the development of farmers’ economic strength.
About MTCP2
The Medium Term Cooperation Program Phase 2 (MTCP2), a five-year capacity building program supported by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), and the European Union (EU), has been implemented in 19 countries across three sub-regions—Southeast Asia, South Asia, and the Pacific—engaging 1,544 sub-national farmers organizations (FOs) with a total membership of around 22 million farmers.
The funding support (total budget of $ 5 million for the whole duration of the project across 19 countries) serves as a catalytic fund that will allow FOs to enhance their capacity to be effective channels of economic services to farmers.
So far, the program has contributed to the formation of strong national platform of FOs with improved capacity to engage in policy processes and mobilize resources from mainstream agricultural development programs like extension services, credit, and pre and post harvest facilities. The program also helped in transforming farmers associations into commodity-based cooperatives to strengthen the role of small-scale farmers within an inclusive and sustainable value-chain.
The program is being implemented by the consortium Asian Farmers’ Association for Sustainable Rural Development (AFA) and La Via Campesina (LVC).
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