A
Sri Lanka Red Cross Society project is helping families regain
their livelihoods, and the country regain or boost its capacity
in cinnamon cultivation, the country’s fourth largest
export earner. The project is being funded by the Spanish Red
Cross and in collaboration with the Sri Lankan Department of
Export Agriculture.
The 26 December 2004 tsunami swept through more than 40 hectares
of cinnamon plantations in Galle district, destroying farmer’s
small plots that ranged up to two hectares large - many over
a century old.
Sri Lanka is the world’s top exporter of cinnamon, with
an 80 percent share of the world market. According to the Department
of Export Agriculture, small holder farmers in Galle district
produce around 50 percent of the country’s export crops.
“The tsunami had a devastating impact on the crop, both
for the export industry and the individual farmer,” says
Anura Rupasinghe, the department’s assistant director.
Farmers not only lost livelihoods but also did not have the
expertise or funds to re-plant and rehabilitate cultivations.
The Red Cross aims to boost the finances of over 300 families
dependent on small cinnamon plots by repairing or replacing
cinnamon trees damaged by the tsunami in Hikkakuwa, Ambalangoda
and Ahungalla, three of the worst-affected divisions in Galle
district.
The four-phase project, planned to take two and a half years,
is being carried out in cooperation with four farmers’
associations.
“The Red Cross project is helping farmers to either revive
plants that could be saved or clear destroyed trees and prepare
their land for re-cultivation. The Department of Export Agriculture
and the Red Cross have also completed training for farmers in
proper irrigation of cultivation plots, use of fertiliser, pest
control, pruning and processing,” explains Spanish Red
Cross development delegate Nuria Beneitez Rodríguez.
K. P. Mahinda lost all but two trees on his 1.6 hectare plot
and is glad to benefit from the expertise.
“It is an entirely new exercise for all the farmers. None
of them have ever planted cinnamon trees. They have only been
harvesting crops planted about a century ago.”
A few hundred yards down the road is a plot belonging to another
beneficiary of the Red Cross project, Wimalawathie Mendis. Her
cinnamon plantation is bordered by a coconut grove and a waterway.
Only a few trees were left after the water flooded the plantation
but the tsunami brought some unexpected benefits.
“The soil has been richer and the new cinnamon plants
are growing faster,” she says. “The only problem
is that other wild plants are also growing fast and that takes
a lot of effort to clear.”
“We have learnt a lot from the training programmes and
support. Planting is well planned and even details such as the
distance between plants is looked into,” she says.
Spacing is as important as proper irrigation, as each clump
of fully grown trees can contain up to 80 individual plants.
The farmers planted in the December 2005 and January 2006 maha,
the major wet season. They expect their trees to mature in two
and a half years.
According to Nishantha Mapalagama, the official of the Export
Agriculture Department overseeing the project, farmers can earn
between rupees 300 to 500 (US$ 2.90 to US$ 4.80) per kilo, depending
on the harvesting and peeling methods. Each hectare yields around
1000 kilograms of cinnamon.
The quality and quantity of the harvest depends on the skill
of peelers, who carve off the bark to make cinnamon quills,
which are used to flavour food and tea. So the Red Cross hopes
to train peelers as part of the project.
Also in the pipeline is the possibility of training farmers
in packaging and marketing the products, the end result being
higher quality and more income.
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Wimalawathie Mendis clears weeds from her cinnamon plantation
at Malawanna village in Hikkaduwa, Sri Lanka. The Spanish
Red Cross and Sri Lanka Red Cross Society are working
with the Sri Lankan Department of Export Agriculture to
assist tsunami-affected small holder cinnamon farmers.
(p14151)
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Mahinda
lost all but two trees on his 1.6 hectare plot. He is
glad to benefit from the expertise of the Red Cross project
that helps farmers to either revive trees that could be
saved or clear destroyed trees and prepare the land for
re-cultivation. (p14150)
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