Roots in Kalawana and Ratnapura, Sri Lanka - Supporting business opportunities and partnerships in the agriculture and plantation sectors - IOE

Derived from the sap of the fishtail palm that grows widely all over Sri Lanka, kithul syrup is used as a sweetener in Sri Lankan cuisine. Pradeep lives in a small village of farmers in Kalawana District, and in 2016, he started tapping kithul trees for a living. He now sells kithul products to a company called Lanka Eco Products Ltd.

Not far from Pradeep, in Ratnapura District, Nadeeka cultivates flowers and sells them to a company that liaises with local producers buying their cultivation and then selling it in local and international markets.

In this episode, Roots visited the IFAD-supported Smallholder Agribusiness Partnerships Programme, which helps small farmers like Pradeep and Nadeeka, to expand their business opportunities in the agriculture sector.

Welcome to Roots, the Independent Office of Evaluation (IOE) podcast for rural communities.

Personal stories of people who participate in IFAD-funded projects evaluated independently allow us to stop, reflect and see what is working well, what is not, why, and what needs to be corrected. Beneficiaries' voices are references to improve projects intended to promote an inclusive and sustainable rural development. IOE listens to these voices and disseminates them through Roots, a podcast produced for a broader audience to share knowledge and learning amongst rural communities around the world. Roots travels with evaluators to IFAD-supported projects that help to change the lives of rural people and communities, bringing you a new voice from a different place on our planet once a month. IOE invites radio broadcasters to use our podcasts in their schedules of programmes.

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