Photo: Collected
The Context
Since the end of its 26-year conflict in 2009, Sri Lanka has made significant economic and social progress. Economic growth has been rapid. Real GDP growth was recorded at 3.2 percent in 2018, compared to 3.4 percent in the previous year. This rapid economic growth rate has led to Sri Lanka being classified as a lower middle-income country with a per capita GDP of US$4.103. The poverty headcount was cut by more than half, to six percent, in less than 10 years.
82 percent of Sri Lanka’s total population resides in rural areas, and agriculture remains the backbone of the economy. Four-fifths of the country’s poor people are dependent on the rural sector. Almost half of poor rural people are small-scale farmers.
Tea and rubber have made large contributions to the national economy. Tea smallholders contribute 70 percent of Sri Lanka's total tea production, while smallholder rubber growers cultivate 62 percent of the land under rubber cultivation.
Youth unemployment is a major challenge, as young people face an unemployment rate of more than three times higher than the population as a whole.
The Strategy
IFAD has over 30 years of experience in Sri Lanka. We support government policies to achieve food security, ensure higher and sustainable incomes for farmers, improve production and productivity, and sustainably manage the environment.
Within this policy framework, our programmes and projects promote deep involvement of the private sector, and of small and medium-sized industries related to the agriculture, fisheries, livestock, and plantation sectors.
The 2015 IFAD country strategic opportunities programme aims to:
help smallholders increase their productivity sustainably by reducing the degradation of natural resources (mainly land), improving agricultural technologies, and creating off-farm opportunities while recognizing the growing links between urban and rural growth and employment creation;
empower poor rural women and men to connect to markets by scaling up value chain development, developing public-private-producer partnerships, and mobilizing innovative financial products tailored to meet the needs of the rural poor in the country.
Country Facts
*More than 81 percent of Sri Lanka’s population lives in rural areas; four-fifths of the country’s poor people are dependent on the rural sector; and almost half of poor rural people consist of small-scale farmers.
*Agriculture employs 28 percent of the labour force, and small-scale farmers produce most of the country’s agricultural output.
Source: Online/GFMM
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