Addressing Climate Change through Agriculture:

Case Study from Sri Lanka

Vositha WijenayakeExecutive Director – SLYCAN Trust

Introducing Organic Agriculture to Small Holder Farmers■ Focus: Trincomalee District of Sri Lanka (North East, vulnerable

to climate change, region impacted by the 30 year civil war)■ Focus group: small holder farmers in the region, women, youth■ Actions taken: capacity building on organic agriculture, impacts

of climate change, data collection on impacts felt (including loss and damage from climate change, impacts on agriculture such as salinization, crop damage, health issues due to use of toxic fertiliser), training on how to make organic fertilizer.

■ Multiple partners involved in different capacity: community based farmer organisations, micro-financing systems, experts on agriculture

■ Policy relevance to country policies – Toxin Free agriculture policy, Nationally Determined Contributions, National Adaptation Plan

■ Climate change focus: adaptation, mitigation, loss and damage, gender empowerment

Wins & Challenges■ Capacity building of small holder farmers on how to change to

organic agriculture (challenge of convincing them to take the initiative, upon seeing the success increased interest in engaging)

■ Lack of organic resources such as fertilizer and seeds (making one’s own fertilizer, setting up community based seed banks)

■ Challenges to agriculture such as salinization of agriculture land (taking steps to work on salinized land to convert them to agriculture land again)

■ Community governance structures to be set up to ensure that community seed banks are efficiently functioning

For further information please contact: slycan.network@gmail.comslycantrust.org