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Agricultural Development Programme - 2009

Majority of the population in Sri Lanka, who lives in rural areas, depends on agriculture directly or indirectly for their livelihood. With a view to bring about an accelerated development in rural areas, under “Gama Neguma” program, 3060 villages are targeted all over the island to carryout rural livelihood Development Programs. Under this the main objective of agricultural development program is to achieve an expected monthly income minimum of Rs. 5000/= for Samurdi beneficiaries by providing technical training and other required facilities to implement sustainable, productive agro based projects.
Accordingly, in year 2009 the following agriculture development programs are implemented in 22 districts including Northern and Eastern provinces.

01. Providing Training and appropriate Technologies for Agro based Projects.
02. Local food items Promotional Projects
03. Promotion of post Harvest and Processing Technology
04. Sustainable Agricultural Water Management Project
05. Home Garden Development Programme
06. Tree Planting and Environment Conservation Programme to celebrate the International Poverty Alleviation week.
07. Progress evaluation / staff productivity.

Important Factors to Be Considered In Organizing Agricultural Projects

1. Selected agriculture projects should be either further strengthening of existing projects or starting a new project.

2. Selected beneficiaries should be able to meet the operational expenditure from a loan granted by the Samurdi bank.

3. Projects should be identified on the basis of suitability of the area and market potential for the product.

4. For small and medium scale projects, a certain proportion of the funds could be provided by the Agriculture Development Division of Samurdi Authority. Micro projects may be initiated with a loan obtained from Samurdi Bank. The amount received would depend on the scale of operation.

5. In the case of machinery / equipment or any other item supplied by the agriculture division (e.g. sprayers, water pumps, tools/equipments etc.) required for the project, it is compulsory to enter into an agreement and the agreement letter would be sent to the beneficiary along with letter of approval of the project.

6. The sum of money awarded by the Agriculture Division of the Samurdi Authority for a project would be recovered in installments once the grace period stipulated is lapsed. It is compulsory that all beneficiaries engaged in agriculture projects to be aware of this fact.

7. In the case of money granted by the Samurdi Authority for initiating a project, it is the responsibility of the relevant officer directly involved at the field level to ensure repayment by the beneficiary.

8. If an approved project becomes unsuccessful due to negligence Samurdi subsidy offered to the beneficiary engaged in the project should be suspended.

50% of the cost of planting material is granted by the agriculture division of Samurdhi Authority and, the balance is contributed by the beneficiaries to fill their project needs.

The completed project proposal, incorporating the following information should be prepared, prior to the commencement of a project, and it should be forwarded through the Divisional Secretary, with the recommendation of the District Secretary to the Director (Agriculture Development Division).

1. Introduction (Project background)

2. Objectives

3. Selection of beneficiaries and their participation. Whether the loan as indicated in the Samurdi subsidy card has been settled.

4. Number of beneficiaries, their names and addresses.

5. If it is a cultivation project, information should be given on the crops to be cultivated, the extend, location of purchasing the seedlings, quantity of seedlings, assured source of water supply.

6. Support service networks, institutions providing support services, names and addresses of resource persons.

7. Market potential for the product / harvests / end product (Officer initiating the project is responsible).

8. Project work plan and time frame.

9. Production plan (contribution made by Samurdi Authority, Samurdi Bank, Beneficiary contribution / labour to the total estimates should be shown separately)

10. Technology and fixed assets (technology, machinery / equipment, land and buildings).

11. Income and expenditure estimates (information on income should be given in details)

12. Profitability (monthly income earned by a single beneficiary).

13. Project supervision and guidance.

14. Work program to implement the project un-interrupted.

15. Project monitoring and evaluation.

16. Responsibility names address and contact numbers of the project/zonal managers and Samurdi Development Officers directly responsible for the project at field level.

17. Consent of the beneficiaries to pay back the sum of money granted by the Agriculture Division.(% of repayment will be decided by the Director (Agriculture Division).

01. Providing training and appropriate technologies for agro based projects.

The main aim of this program is to enhance the quality and productivity of agro based projects and coordinating with support services as well as upgrade their technical and entrepreneur knowledge, targeting the Samurdhi beneficiaries to implement agricultural Projects.

Under this training programs were conducted on cultivation of fruits, vegetables, export crops and other field crops with the help of support service institutions such as Department of agriculture, Export agriculture, Tea small authority and Coconut cultivation board.

It is compulsory that these training programs are project related. To obtain a training program an estimate should be prepared by Samurdhi Mangers and forwarded to The Director, Agriculture Development Division for approval, through the respective Divisional Secretary, District Secretary/ Samurdhi Assistant Commissioner along with their recommendations.While preparing the estimates the following financial limits should be taken into consider.

1. Subsistence for trainees for a full day program should be Rs.100/- and Rs.40/- for a half day program.

2. Allowance to resource person is paid at the rate of Rs.250/- per hour, subject to a maximum limit of Rs.750/- per day. Allowance for resource persons should limited to Rs.1500/- per day.

3. Administrative expenses for training programs should be limited to 10% of the total estimates.

4. In instances where the beneficiaries have to be transported out of the region for a training program/ field tour, necessary funds could be released for such travel, following special approval of the Director (Agriculture Development).

The following information should be provided along with the estimates for training programs.

i. Name, designation and address of the resource person participating in the trainig program (Resource persons should be from an institution / company specialized in the subject area)

ii. List of names and addresses of beneficiaries.

iii. Location and date on which training is to be conducted (should be informed on a later date).

02. Local food items Promotional programme

The aim of this program is to identify the resources and potentials available at village level and utilize them efficiently in order to implement viable, sustainable local food items by beneficiary groups.
Following projects have been implemented covering various varieties of crops such as fruits, vegetables, tuber crops, root crops, maize and other field crops.

03. Promotion of post harvest and processing technology

Unlike presenting products to the market, beneficiaries could obtain a greater profit by processing and packaging the primary and releasing to the market when the prices are high.

Under this program priority has been given to Matale, Vavuniya and Polonnaruwa Districts, which are major onion growing areas, to setup onion stores in order to obtain reasonable price by using post harvest technologies Rs.5.0 Mn has been allocated for this program.

04. Sustainable agricultural water management project.

The main objective of this project is to enhance the living standard of the farmers who live in dry and semi dry areas and facing water scarcity. In order to achieve high productivity, utilizing modern agricultural techniques with proper farm management practices in their small scale lands, solar powered drip irrigation systems are provided to selected farmers under the special loan scheme collaborating with the Ministry of Agriculture.
These systems are expected to install in Kurunegala, Matale, Anuradhapura, Hambantota, Monaragala, Polonnaruwa and Ratnapura districts with assistance of the Samurdhi banks.

05. Home garden development programme

The main idea of this program is to produce fresh vegetables, fruits and livestock products from the farmlands in order to increase productivity and improve nutrition level of the Samurdhi beneficiary family and protect the environment. Assistance was granted Rs.1500/= for each home garden for seeds and planting materials.

06. National Program of Empowering the Small Tea Holders and other small scale planters through coordination with relevant institutes.

This program is targeted to encourage Samurdhi beneficiaries who engaged in small tea sector and plantation sector. The main objective of this program is to enhance the quality product, and mean while motivate the small scale planters to earn more income. 50% of the cost of planting material is granted by the agriculture division of Samurdhi Authority and, the balance is contributed by the beneficiaries to fill their project needs. Technical support is provided by relevant institutions and departments.

07. Tree planting and environment conservation Programme

Tree planting and environment conservation Program conduct to celebrate the international poverty alleviation week. The programs under taken in all Grama Niladari division and necessary advice and guidance will be provided by the Agriculture Division. The main aim

of this project is to conduct tree planting programs with the participation of samurdhi beneficiaries which are from selected villages under Gama Naguma to create an awareness of the environment management issues among them.

It is expected to identify areas vulnerable to ecological changes and rehabilitate these areas for protection of catchment areas. Accordingly tree planting programs will be launched in areas vulnerable to land degradation in each district.

A ceremony to launch the tree planting program will be organized in 10 villages from each district. For this purpose, each village will be provided with the sum of Rs.15,000/-

08. Progress evaluation / staff productivity.

Progress evaluation will be conducted in 3 levels.

Progress Review at Divisional Secretariat Level

Progress review at Grama Niladari Division and Zonal level all work program and projects administered by the Agriculture Division and Zonal level all work program and projects administered by the Agriculture Division should be forwarded to the monthly meetings of Divisional Agricultural Committee. At these meeting, the physical and financial progress is discussed and the review report should be submitted to the Divisional Secretary. Further at the Head quarter Manager’s meetings held once a fortnight, each Divisional Secretary should review the progress in details under each items and any short comings and corrections to be made brought out. The monthly progress reports forwarded by the Zonal Managers should be collected and incorporated into a consolidated report at the Divisional Secretariat level, which should be forwarded to the District Secretary on the specific dates by the Divisional Secretary.

Progress Review at District Secretariat Level

The physical and financial progress of the approved agricultural plan should be reviewed by each District Samurdhi Assistant Commissioner at the monthly / quartly meetings of the Head quarter Managers/ Divisional Secretary. The monthly progress report submitted at Divisional Secretary Division level should be discussed in detail and a consolidated report submitted to the Samurdi Authority. Reporting the progress of agricultural activities, organization, collection and submission of data at District level progress review meeting is the responsibility of District Income generation project Manager.

District Income generation project Manager should collect all monthly progress reports furnished by Divisional Secretariat Divisions and submit to the Director, Agriculture Development Division on the specific dates.

Progress Review at National Level

1) At the National level, progress review meeting will be held at the Sri Lanka Samurdhi Authority, to discuss the work program of Agriculture Development Division.

(i) District Progress Managers meeting.
(ii) District Assistant Commissioners meeting.

2) At the National level, monthly meetings of the agricultural programs will be held at the Samurdhi Authority with the participation of District Income generation project Managers.

3) At the National level progress review meetings, progress of the agriculture development program of each district will be discussed to highlight the activities, solution to the problems and facilitates decision making process.