Features

More fruit for their labour

Published

1 month ago

2025/10/5

“They look close to dead,” says Sri Lankan farmer Shantha Dissanayake looking at his pruned mango trees.

“They looked close to dead,” says Sri Lankan farmer, Shantha Dissanayake, about his mango trees.

“However, this experiment has turned out to be a complete success.”

Shantha has spent a lot of time worrying about elephants stomping over his mango orchards. But he became even more scared when agricultural experts came from abroad and hacked his trees down to relative shadows of their former selves. The trees are much shorter than before, with fewer but wider branches that allow sunlight to boost fruit quality and naturally prevent plant diseases.

Zengxian Zhao, the man who cut the trees in the first place, laughed at Shantha’s memory of the event. “He was initially shocked, but he’s been convinced and is spreading the word,” said Zengxian, an expert on crop cultivation.

This pruning method is one of the new techniques being shared through the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) -China South-South Cooperation project, aiming to boost the incomes of farmers who produce bananas, pineapples and mangoes, high-value fruits that can flourish in the country.

The whole project, which includes innovations in Sri Lanka’s banana, mango and pineapple sectors, is emblematic of the South-South Cooperation theme, consisting of technology transfer, precision agriculture, legal trading norms, transportation and marketing methods and the adoption and upscaling of good agricultural practices.

Shantha Dissanayake, a mango farmer in northern Sri Lanka, has spent a lot of time worrying about elephants stomping over his mango orchards. But he became even more scared when agricultural experts came from abroad and hacked his trees down to relative shadows of their former selves.

“These outsiders came and hacked down all my trees to stubs with only a few leaves left. They looked close to dead,” he said. “However, this experiment has turned out a complete success,” he added.

The trees are much shorter than before, with fewer but wider branches that allow sunlight to boost fruit quality and naturally prevent plant diseases. “Now I see that it works,” said Shantha, a 53-year-old man in perpetual good spirits, whose hobby and obsession is fixing a rusty old tractor he used as a younger farmer growing squash and maize.

Less tree, more mangoes

Zengxian Zhao, the man who cut the trees in the first place, laughed at Shantha’s memory. “He was initially shocked, but he’s been convinced and is spreading the word,” said Zengxian, an expert on crop cultivation, dispatched by China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.

He was deployed in 2023 in this Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) project focused on Sri Lanka’s tropical fruit sector, aiming to boost the incomes of the farmers who produce bananas, pineapples and mangoes, high-value fruits that can flourish in the country.

“Here the farmers know how to make mango trees big, tall and very strong,” Zengxian said while chatting with Shantha on his farm outside Anuradhapura. It has become a kind of exposition centre where Shantha’s neighbours come to learn about the new techniques being shared through the FAO-China South-South Cooperation (SSC) project.

“I explain and show Chinese pruning methods that are very different,” Zengxian said. “We are looking to make more of the plant nutrients flow to the fruits.”

Zengxian’s pruning method – which he has demonstrated to hundreds of Sri Lankan farmers at more than 30 sites around the dry and sparsely-populated North-Central Province – is manually simple. It follows a fractal logic wherein the crown of each mango tree is hollowed out and the number of spindles per branch reduced by half.

In essence, he serially splices the tree, starting at about 70 centimetres up the trunk, replicating the pattern of leaving four rather than the typical seven branches at each point to open the canopy in a way that enhances fruit productivity. Ultimately, the ideal is to have one tree with about 87 branches, each producing one or two ovoid-shaped mangoes, ideally weighing just over 500 grams.

Shorter mango trees make it easier to bag and pick the fruit at harvest, which is done by hand. Greater exposure to sunlight additionally reduces opportunities for invasive pests, lowering both labour requirements and agrichemical costs.

Shantha says that while gross yield per pruned tree has dipped somewhat, his net marketable yield has jumped by 50 percent, as he now obtains mostly prime-grade fruit whereas before the majority of his fruits were too small or irregular and had to sold at give-away prices.

Shantha describes himself as a convert to the new techniques he has learned and now plans to adopt them on the rest of his trees. He is convincing his brother-in-law Jayasekara to do the same on his nearby farm, where mango trees tower up to three times higher but with only marginal economic yields.

At the moment, Jayasekara uses a long bamboo pole to knock down fruits from the upper branches, which usually bruises them to the point where they have to be turned into chutney on the same day or perish. With shorter trees, this wouldn’t be the case.

The pineapple predicament

Further south, in the towns of Makandura and Horana, the tropical climate poses a special challenge as year-round heat and two big rainy seasons catalyse greater pest risks, said Yangyang Liu, whose focus has been on the pineapple value chain.

Flooding has been a major issue as well that led to many farmers abandoning pineapples. He and his colleagues from the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences have shown how inexpensive field management, such as raised soil beds and novel mulching techniques, help mitigate that risk.

The Chinese experts’ other practical advice for improving pineapple cultivation focused on irrigation, integrated fertigation networks that result in “more application but less use” of costly fertilisers and land cover sheaths to maintain soil moisture and minimize the runoff of expensive agrochemicals.

Together these initiatives sharply reduced labour needs for weeding, which is particularly ornery with the spiny variety grown in the region. Placing bags around the growing fruit helps block sun scorching, which in turn helps identify the actual ripening stage with greater precision and leads to tastier output.

Critically, Sri Lankan farmers learned how to use crown propagation, a method of generating fresh planting materials that is considerably more efficient and addresses one of the main cost barriers local pineapple cultivators face. This method more than triples the amount of new planting material generated by existing plants and responds to one of the main demands local farmers have.

Suneth Lakmal, a long-time pineapple farmer, says that more available material and the more climate-resilient techniques he has learned has helped him nearly triple the number of pineapples he can grow to 20 000 per acre.

He is so confident that now he plans to double the amount of land he leases, boosting production to the point where he can try to negotiate export deals. Given his new method’s reduced reliance on costly pesticides and improved water efficiency, he dreams of expanding into becoming a large-scale farmer. “I don’t feel any limits to how much I can cultivate,” he said.

Dharshini Erangika Jayamanne, Director of Agriculture at the Research and Development Centre in Makandura, north of the country’s capital Colombo, set up a model pineapple farm that achieved three times typical local pineapple yields using the low-cost technology showcased by the project. Moreover, the fruits are higher quality and have uniform harvest times, boosting scale to meet the needs of foreign buyers.

Working with the experts, she innovated a way to generate new plant materials for pineapple and bananas – known locally as suckers – in a way that harmonizes seasonality and reduces the spread of plant diseases. She also led the training of more than 1 000 farmers and students through workshops.

While initial participants received financial help with upfront costs, they can be recovered in less than three seasons and sometimes just one, she reckons, making facilitating credit rather than offering grants a viable opportunity for the Ministry.

“The key to this project was guidance and the scientist-to-scientist rapport. Because they are always with us, we could always come up with fixes to local challenges which is the key point in the success of this project,” said Dharshini, who herself is an accomplished scientist with breakthrough innovations in pineapple tissue culture. She plans to take the FAO project and make it “readable and transferrable” to regional research centres.

“Extension services are essential going forward and are essential to avoid anyone falling into improper beliefs about technology failures,” she said. “Just learning things from the Internet does not turn out to be so successful.”

Some of that outreach happens spontaneously. A common refrain among the farmers participating in the project is that their neighbours ask them to learn more.

“They’ll look over the wall and ask why I am planting so densely, and I tell them about the FAO project,” said Seela Wickrama, who is turning her parents’ small holding from a betel farm into a multi-crop enterprise focusing on pineapples and bananas. She also noted that while she benefits from start-up grants thanks to the project, she will now also invest in them on her own.

Long-term benefits

Participants in the SSC project receive grant funding to defray some up- front investment costs, such as installation of irrigation systems, while Sri Lanka’s Department of Agriculture is paying half of fertiliser costs. That help is key in the demonstration phase, but once accepted at scale, the approach is “relatively light on capital” and can be “beneficial to smallholders even without public incentives,” says Bandara Abeysinghe, a provincial agricultural instructor who has been helping the FAO project reach a larger audience. The real benefit of the project is the capacity building, learning new, simple and low-cost techniques to increase production.

Shantha agreed. “I don’t want free stuff or subsidies, but long-term loans,” he said. With proof of increased productivity, bank loans are easier to access. The government’s goal, Abeysinghe notes, is to increase productivity of tropical fruit farming, not necessarily to promote mango, pineapple or banana production over the region’s other core crops, which include chili, soya and various kinds of rice.

“If done well farmers get a higher return on investment,” he said, adding that his team will be giving 50 courses a year on Zengxian’s pruning techniques.

Going local to go global

What Shantha, Suneth and other producers in Sri Lanka really want is to find a way to tap the USD 11 billion global tropical fruit market, which offer considerably higher prices.

The popular TJC mango variety Shantha grows is appreciated for having small seeds, meaning more, smoother and fleshier pulp, and has been the catalyst of a recent upswing in exports to the Middle East. Still, total exports amount to around 430 tonnes, including dried fruit, less than one percent of national production.

However, unleashing the formidable potential of tropical fruits to help livelihoods reliant on transforming Sri Lanka’s agrifood systems involves more than just sorting out paperwork.

Those challenges overlap with issues such as local procurement and in particular transportation, which for fresh tropical fruit is a delicate process from start to finish. The experts from China have taught effective techniques such as placing pineapples upside down in crates to minimize jostling during transport.

However, nothing is as simple as it seems. Even using plastic crates is a systemic intervention, as they have to be recycled back to where they are needed, and wholesale markets need to be revamped and weaned off habits of using bags or open mounds of fresh fruit on exposed trucks and at warehouse depots.

Gradually pushing through this reform has been a major contributor to the reduction by half of food loss and waste, said Chandana Wasala, Deputy Director of the National Institute of Post Harvest Management, a research centre originally set up with FAO’s assistance in 1976 to improve rice processing in the country.

Jars of heirloom rice varieties line the institute’s laboratories, where young researchers now focus on food-safety assessments of mango jams and other processed foods using misshapen fruits. Somewhat ironically the institute is home to towering 25-metre-high mango trees, which serve for shade and ornamentation rather than production.

The project has offered a platform to launch a broad regional awareness campaign about food loss, said Chandana, who has researched the financial and practical considerations that drive actors in the value chain – especially traders and transporters who see it as an extra cost – to resist replacing poly-sack bags with plastic crates.

As part of the project, Chandana took some of his team to China for a tour and training programme and picked up on how transforming Sri Lanka’s tropical fruit sector is a systemic enterprise, in many ways requiring the same market integration and efficiency challenges China overcame in recent decades with its large internal market.

Since then, he, Zengxian and Yangyang have worked with local colleagues to conduct around 80 “training of trainers” sessions and meet hundreds of farmers to explain small-scale actions that can be done now to deliver outsized impacts.

One underappreciated issue is that materials for bagging fruit, chemical inputs for herbicides and fertilisers and irrigation piping are relatively expensive in Sri Lanka.

“I’ve found that all the farmers are eager to try these new techniques, but compared to China, they often can’t get what they need locally at a good price, exacerbating the financial strain,” said Dequan Sun, leader of the experts deployed on the project.

Dequan huddled with local suppliers to invent affordable alternatives for products ranging from fruit bags to fertiliser mixes. “The farmers here have been doing this for centuries and are good, and we’ve learned a lot from them and about local fruit varieties,” he said. “But there is room to improve and that’s why we’re here. Being here for two years, two whole seasons with all the phases, means that our training and our model demonstration farms are intensive and allow people to grasp how they can increase production and yields.”

The intense contact means that farmers and technical experts find alignment in their quest for viable solutions that take the Chinese know-how and fit it to the Sri Lankan circumstance, allowing both sides to learn. “Every time we have a problem, we discuss a lot and solve it so that we all know what is going on,” said Yangyang. “Responding to questions is the best way.”

Transferring knowledge

“This method benefits both individual farmers and the country’s economy,” said Shantha.

The USD 1.5 million SSC project is a “pilot and a proof of concept”, said Vimlendra Sharan, FAO Representative to Sri Lanka. Putting plastic bags around fruit to prevent sun scorching, harmonize ripening and fend off pests is “not mind-boggling technology,” he noted. The real added value here is that the experts from China are right there, over several seasons, to see challenges, not for a one-off tutorial, he added. “Farmers are amazingly instinctive at understanding each other.”

Keeping up the momentum

Zengxian and his infectious enthusiasm and Yangyang with his fluency in Sinhala and poetic nostalgia for serene scenes of “buffaloes in paddy fields with herons standing nearby”, have now left the country after two years during which they helped deliver hundreds of hands-on tutorials to more than 1 900 farmers as well as scores of extension workers, trainers and students.

However, Kuragamage Don Lalkantha, Sri Lanka’s Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation since late 2024, is committed to making sure the SSC project will live on and evolve. Lalkantha is a no-nonsense man who wants to help turn his country around after a dramatic economic collapse in 2022.

Noting that many past development projects ended up with “no results or outcomes,” he is focused on restoring benefits from the high-value agricultural produce for which his island nation has been famous for millennia.

“We need investments from abroad… and must focus on increasing production and boosting exports,” he said. “Our country is home to a wide variety of fruits, but we have not yet been able to preserve this diversity and present it to the world effectively… We are deeply interested in making this a reality.”

Ministerial officials across all provinces are collaborating more closely to ensure that the agricultural sector is generating meaningful and inclusive results that also reach the poorest individuals and contribute to food security for all. The government has set up cost-sharing schemes whereby it subsidizes irrigation equipment, plastic crates and other items farmers need to upscale the project’s results.

Public officials on the front line agree. “After completing these research and field experiments, we have a very clear idea on how to scale up these technologies, and I believe it will have a very big and positive effect,” said Dharshini “The experts from China did a very big job boosting our confidence… We are stronger and ready to take our battle alone into the future,” she added.

“There is a long road still to go” before Sri Lanka’s family farmers can export tropical fruit at scale, noted Yangyang, who has canvassed major global fruit companies to understand their needs, but they are on the right track.

“We have a local saying that the way to get rich is to grow mangoes out of season,” said Shantha. With the new low-cost South-South shared technologies, he is now confident there is another more viable way.

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Features

New York and America rebuke Trump

Published

6 hours ago

2025/11/9

Thilina Walpola

The Democratic Socialist Trio: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), Zoran Mamdani, Bernie Sanders

New York, New York … City that doesn’t sleep … king of the hill, top of the heap … where if you make it, you can make it anywhere – made the most sensational news this week, but not for anything the paean of a song that John Kander wrote and Frank Sinatra immortalized. It made news by electing Zoran Mamdani, a 34 year American citizen of colour without borders, as its new Mayor and giving more than a little jolt to every scaffolding of all the political, cultural and economic structures of the American establishment. The jolt may not come to mean anything in any final outcome, but it is impossible to miss the moment of its occurrence.

Mamdani’s election on Tuesday, October 4th, was the most dramatic rebuke to Trump, but it was not the only one. In multiple elections in New Jersey, Virjinia, Pennsylvania, Georgia and California, the voters decisively turned against Trump and his executive overreaches. It is not the numbers of votes that matter but the restive vibes that are finally permeating America’s body politic. It certainly builds on and extends the momentum created by the No Kings protests held across America in June, July and October.

Dick Cheney’s Legacy

On Monday, the day before the vote, former Vice President Dick Cheney passed away. Cheney is considered to be the most powerful Vice President in modern American history and was the architect of the war on terror in Afghanistan and Iraq that marred the presidency of Bush the younger and precipitated the presidency first of Barack Obama a progressive centrist and later that of Donald Trump a crass opportunist who has been hugging the extreme right.

Although he vigorously opposed Trump and his methods and publicly supported Kamala Harris in the 2024 election, Cheney was the original champion of the concept of unitary president that Trump is now stretching to ridiculous and dangerous limits through his executive orders. There is an esoteric debate among online pundits as to who has done greater damage to the American political system – Cheney or Trump?

I put that question to my daughter, Menaka, a political theorist, and her ready response was that there are different levels of bad and evil and that it is all there – in The Eighteenth Brumaire! Who better than Marx for diagnosing historic facts and personages? History alternates between farce and tragedy and the traditions of the dead weigh down on the brains of the living.

But then, as the Mayor elect Mamdani gallantly quoted Jawaharlal Nehru in his victory speech in New York: “A moment comes, but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance.

” The quote is from Nehru’s celebrated midnight independence speech in 1947 made impromptu without text, notes or teleprompter, immediately following the more memorable line: “At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom.”

Quoting Nehru in New York may not go down well in today’s New Delhi, and ‘that is how things are’ today. But fellow Indian American and Democratic Congressman from California, Ro Khanna, has welcomed it as a sign of Mamdani’s authenticity. Khanna, a respected Congressman, identifies himself as a Progressive Capitalist, but wholeheartedly supports the New York exploits of Mamdani, the Democratic Socialist.

Quoting Nehru is also indicative of the new Mayor’s home schooling and the influence of his parents Mahmood Mamdani and Mira Nair, respectively, of Gujarati Muslim and Punjabi Hindu origins. His father is an academic in postcolonial studies, who gave Zoran his middle name, Kwame, after Africa’s first postcolonial leader, the charismatic Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana. Zoran’s mother is the celebrated filmmaker of Mississippi Masala.

Born in Kampala, Uganda, lived in Johannesburg, South Africa and finally settled in New York, Zoran Nkrumah Mamdani is the quintessential millennial without borders. An activist from his Bronx school days in New York, and Bowden University days in Maine, Zoran is a talented communicator, writer, musician, rap singer and filmmaker. He is the consummate activist artist rather than the ideal philosopher politician. But his artistic talents and media skills have served him well in making the biggest political splash on the world’s biggest city stage.

Trump and Mamdani

The Economist (November 1st) is touting it as “The battle for New York”, between the Mayor elect Mamdani and the City’s enfant terrible of a son, now US President, Donald Trump – “two skillful politicians with radical plans.” Trump’s plans are coming home to roost much sooner than anyone may have thought. And there are scores of highly placed doubters as to whether any of Mamdani’s socialist plans will ever pass in the citadel of capitalism.

The Mamdani manifesto – promising free daycare, free transit, affordable groceries, $30 minimum wage, and moratorium on rent, all paid by taxing wealthy, has resonated resoundingly with New York voters, giving him over 50% of the vote, and good margin wins in four of New York’s five boroughs, with over 60% of young New Yorkers voting for him.

But the establishment powers and voters over 65 are skeptical about him, about his promises and his ability to deliver them. There is no underestimating the challenge facing him, although Mamdani’s policies are not infeasible or impractical. They have been implemented in many European countries, and Mamdani himself has alluded to a form of Scandinavian socialism as appropriate for New York.

But many in the New York city administration support him and he has reached out to those with municipal experience to lead the transition to office before he is sworn in as Mayor on January 1. The transition is all women with impressive background and credentials and includes the widely known and respected former Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan in the Biden Administration. She would bring heft to the legal and fiscal side of the new administration when it comes to taxation and pushing back on President Trump’s illegal threat to stop the flow of federal funds to the City.

But for all his haranguing about Mamdani’s candidacy and mayorship, Trump may not have the time or the means to take the fight to Mamdani. He already has too many other fires to worry about, all of them he created and which are now coming back to burn him. He and the Republican Party will of course try to use Mamdani and his brand of democratic socialism as the new face of the Democratic Party to scare away the American voters. They already did in Tuesday’s elections but got beaten anyway.

The Democratic Party is also divided at the top in spite of the experiential unity and solidarity among the people at every layer that is below the establishment. The brahmins of the party have generally kept a safe distance from Mamdani. But the progressive socialists who have mostly been a bank bench force in the party, except during presidential primaries, openly embraced Mamdani and have now become a national force that the party establishment has to reckon with.

Bernie Sanders and AOC have been supporting Mamdani from the beginning and his victory in New York opens a new chapter for American progressivism. Rather than Mamdani becoming Trump’s political whipping boy, it is Trump who is making himself to be the galvanizer of all Americans who want America to be inclusive in its promises to everyone who chooses to live there.

by Rajan Philips ✍️

Features

Sky Gallery Presents ‘Her Face, Her Power’ Portraits of Women by Gustav Klimt and Frida Kahlo

Published

6 hours ago

2025/11/9

Thilina Walpola

A Landmark Exhibition Exploring Female Identity, Strength, and Spirit Through the Eyes of Two Masters

Sky Gallery is proud to present, this groundbreaking presentation, which brings together a curated selection of portraits from two revolutionary artists of the 20th century. Gustav Klimt’s gilded elegance and symbolic sensuality meet Frida Kahlo’s raw introspection and cultural defiance, offering visitors a layered experience of feminine power across time and style. The exhibition challenges the traditional male gaze, instead presenting women as the authors of their own identity—be it through Klimt’s external idealization or Kahlo’s internal excavation. On view is an extraordinary collection of life-sized, museum-quality canvas portraits that immortalize the spirit, strength, and sensuality of women as seen through the eyes of these masters.

Though separated by generation and geography, Gustav Klimt (Austria, 1862–1918) and Frida Kahlo (Mexico, 1907–1954) shared a fascination with the female form and psyche. Klimt, the master of the Viennese Secession, portrayed women as ethereal, symbolic, and often enveloped in a cosmos of gold leaf and pattern. Kahlo, on the other hand, turned her unflinching gaze inward, using self-portraiture to explore themes of pain, identity, politics, and cultural heritage with visceral honesty. ‘Her Face, Her Power’ explores the feminine form not as an object, but as a vessel of resilience, identity, and creative energy.

The exhibition includes a selection of Gustav Klimt’s mesmerizing portraits, showcasing his signature use of gold leaf, intricate patterns, and allegorical symbolism that redefined female beauty at the turn of the century and, a powerful collection of Frida Kahlo’s self-portraits, revealing her exploration of physical and emotional suffering, her vibrant Mexican identity, and her indomitable spirit.

At first glance, Klimt and Kahlo may seem like an unlikely pairing, but their work converges on a central theme: the immense power and complexity of the female experience. This is not only about viewing art; it’s about witnessing a conversation across time about identity, adornment, pain, and ultimately, power. Klimt and Kahlo both painted women not as muses, but as mirrors — reflecting desire, defiance, and deep inner worlds. This exhibition is a tribute to that gaze — powerful, vulnerable, and utterly human.

‘Her Face, Her Power’ continues Sky Gallery’s mission to bring world art closer to local audiences, this time inviting reflection on how feminine identity and artistic vision intertwine across eras and continents. Each portrait in this exhibition has been reproduced in breathtaking detail from the original works, presented on life-sized framed canvases that honor the original dimensions and textures. Visitors will journey from the sensual, decorative allure of Klimt’s subjects to the raw, autobiographical narrative of Kahlo’s work.

Opening on Friday 14thNovember, the exhibition continues until Sunday 23rdNovember – 10 AM – 5PM each day.

Features

Addressing Conservation Challenges through Female Entrepreneurship: A paradigm shift

Published

6 hours ago

2025/11/9

Thilina Walpola

Nursery managers, LEF and WNPS PLANT team at the project launch event

WNPS PLANT, Otter Fonds from Netherland and the Lanka Environmental Fund joined hands to empower Female Entrepreneurs to commence their own forest plant nurseries through a powerful groundbreaking initiative recently. The final awarding and agreement signing was held with the female recipients and the WNPS and PLANT teams, along with the donor representatives, on the 23d of October 2025 at the WNPS head office. The WNPS once again pioneered a fresh thought process by making major infusions into Community aspects and entrepreneurship as a bridge for its conservation endeavours.

With a vision to develop forest corridors and unify fragmented forests through private sector engagement, the WNPS (www.wnpssl.org ) set up Preserving Land and Nature (Guarantee) Ltd, (PLANT) a few years ago (www.plantsl.org). The initiative gained rapid momentum thanks to a very focused approach, multiple partner engagements, and a passionate team, but soon hit a massive roadblock. The long forest corridors being created in the hills needed way more montane plants than were readily available. Species are carefully selected by the teams and with no precedent of large-scale reforesting in the hills, the existing few nurseries were unable to cater to the demands. The slow growth rate of montane plants provided yet another challenge. The leadership went for a bold plan for which it sought willing donors.

The idea was multi-dimensional: seek out female talent who would be passionate about conservation, fund them at the start up stages, train them extensively in forest nursery management and entrepreneurship to make them best in class, make it an exclusive female-led initiative, part subsidize their capital costs so that the returns would be faster and provide a safety net by purchasing the output. The projects will accelerate the creation of several successful and profitable ventures which would not just address the conservation challenge at hand but also bring social stability and a financial infusion into multiple families within rural society.

Otter Fonds and the Lank Environmental Fund, both lent tremendous support towards this vision and willingly agreed to fund three and two entrepreneurs respectively. A wide-ranging search, a robust application process, multiple days of visiting prospects by the PLANT team, meticulous marking and a rigorous final interview step, resulted in the ultimate choices. WNPS President Graham Marshall reflecting on the initiative stated that “This project by WNPS PLANT resonates with what the WNPS as a Society would want to achieve as outcomes of conservation initiatives. Livelihood enhancement is critical in any conservation effort. This project is special because it is about empowerment, creating leaders, and independence of women in conservation”.

The personal stories the ladies are inspirational. Ms. A.G.Anoja from Ginigathhena, in the Nuwara Eliya District is a housewife and motivated community member with a strong interest in home gardening and native plant restoration. At 63, she brings both life experience and genuine enthusiasm to the role of nursery manager. Her determination stemmed from a comment made by her son, where he was encouraging her to “try and earn her own income”. She says she became determined to carve out a path towards financial independence and self-employment.

The selected nursery managers Samindhika, Chandanie Devi, Anoja Kumari, A.G. Anoja and Rasika

Ms. M.G.K. Chandanie Devi, a 60-year-old resident of Divitotawela near Welimada, had her husband passing away a few years ago. Hers had been a challenging journey of dependency, living with her daughter and grandchild whom she supports and cares for, while her son-in-law acted as the single income earner. Her extended family is deeply engaged in plant propagation activities, and she mentioned that “a stable income will uplift her entire family circle and give her confidence and positivity for the future”.

Ms. M.G.K. Samandhika, a 55-year-old resident hailing from Diganatenna near Bandarawela, brings hands-on experience to native plant restoration. Already involved in agriculture and nursery work from her home garden, she is well-positioned to take on a leadership role in managing the nursery and has an extended family who are in this field. Her husband is paralyzed, and they have three children. Her youngest is in Year Nine, and this initiative provides financial stability and releases her from having to keep searching daily for some gainful labour intensive work to keep the home fires burning.

Ms. Anoja Kumari, a resident of Marakkayakumbura, Hapugastalawa, near Nawalapitiya, is an experienced community member with a strong interest in cultivation and native plant restoration. She brings valuable agricultural knowledge and practical skills. Her husband is actively engaged in vegetable farming, and she has three children with the youngest son in Year Eight. She has worked as the treasurer of village societies, highlighting her organizational and financial management skills.

Ms. R.M. Rasika Priyanthi, a 44-year-old resident of Pebotuwa, in the Ratnapura District, is an experienced nursery grower with a strong grounding in both fruit tree propagation and native plant restoration. She is confident of using digital tools to coordinate activities. The family’s longstanding involvement in plant propagation has cultivated strong practical expertise. The low price and small margins on some of the fruit and other trees they sell would often mean a very limited annual income stream, resulting in little upward momentum for the family. This will now be a new lifeline for her.

Amy McCulla, Grants Manager of Otter Fonds from Netherlands (www.otterfonds.com), was very positive about this initiative. “The Otter Fonds is proud to collaborate with PLANT on this innovative project to empower local women to become entrepreneurs and start their own nurseries. PLANT will teach these women how to start and run their own businesses, leading to increased income in the community. These nurseries will provide the montane plants that are necessary for PLANT to continue to create connected corridors of protected forest ecosystems within the southwestern quarter of Sri Lanka. The Otter Fonds looks forward to watching these nurseries, and these recipients, develop and thrive”, she said.

“We are extremely excited to support this landmark initiative by WNPS PLANT, which we know will signal a shift in how restoration is carried out on our island. Although there is an appetite for reforestation, there is a dearth of endemic and native species saplings available to supply this demand. Our hope is that these female-led native species nurseries can fill that void, while also supporting local female entrepreneurs and enriching local communities. The Lanka Environment Fund (LEF) believes in investing in long-term holistic projects, such as this, that will serve as a catalyst within this conservation niche” said Vinod Malwatte, Director of Lanka Environmental Fund in support of the project ( www.lankaenvironmentfund.org )

PLANT wishes to make the community bigger stakeholders, which is crucial since some areas of restoration are in very close proximity to populated areas, and plant damage is often caused by human intervention. WNPS felt that women would be better custodians of this with the opportunity to create home-based employment, create economic empowerment and uplift their social standards since the trickle down effect of income to the family is far better in the case of women.

The recipients now head into the intense residential training phases with different experts who will guide them along the path ahead. The initiative is already proving to be far more than a conservation step, and becoming a beacon of Hope, Dignity and Economic empowerment. These women may very well be the torchbearers for a new breed of conservationists from among those who live in the frontlines of our last remnant forests. The strength of WNPS and the vision of PLANT, along with Otter Fonds and the Lanka Environment Fund will certainly be their foundation for growth.