More than a Garden: Sri Lanka’s Home Agriculture Projects

KANDY, SRI LANKA

Ven. Senagama Sumana Thero is one of our leaders. The Buddhist monk (pictured here) is checking out the produce at the community farm he helped create. He was in the forefront of organizing the Home Agriculture Project, which, the Sri Lankan IP Teams started at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many IP Team members who were also daily wage earners could not go to work during the pandemic, and as a resultt were going hungry. The Home Agriculture Projects became a life-line for them.

Ven. Sumana’s temple provided land to be used as a nursery for vegetables and yams from which IP Team members took plants to cultivate in their backyards. Today, many IP Team members are trained in organic agriculture and strategic methods of prioritizing the most nutritious food. They now have enough food for their own families and to distribute to neighbors or sell in the farmers’ markets. There are also village farms that families collaboratively cultivate and nurseries where seedlings are grown and experiments are done.

At the outset, some politicians tried to stop the project. The IP Teams using the OMNIA’s organizing strategy, did one-on-ones in the community, built coalitions and alliances, and out-organized them.

The temple gained goodwill of the community. A defunct Montessori School in the temple premises was also resurrected by an IP Team member who attributes her success to the agitation she received from the OMNIA training.