A Capacity Building Training Programme was conducted at Government Agricultural Farm at Labuduwa under “Food Security Project – Addressing Causes for Poverty and Ensuring Food Security For Farming communities) on 15th February 2023. This training was carried out especially for the
CBO members and farmers under this project, where there were 220 participants.
Before the commencement of the training Fr Lasantha Fonseka (Director of Caritas SED Galle) made the introductory speech followed by speeches by Divisional Secretary of Bope/Poddala DS Division, and Assistant Farm Manager of Labuduwa Farm. The other participants included Agricultural Development & Research Assistants attached to many Agricultural Zones under the Department of Agriculture and Agrarian Service Centers in Galle District apart from the CBO leaders , CBO members and Caritas SED Galle.
The Assistant Farm Manager explained that this Farm is self-sufficient with no funds or inputs from Government or other external sources and we provide practical trainings to many Govt Officers in Agriculture Sector and also school children free of charge. The Agro-Entrepreneurship Training Unit which was started in the year 2017 is successfully progressing. They also maintain a Farm Shop where they sell all vegetables, fruits, leaves, curd, yoghurt which are produced in the Farm.
The participants of today’s programme were given practical trainings in various sections in the Agricultural Farm such as Agro-Entrepreneurship Training (on how to become a successful entrepreneur), technical knowledge in bee-keeping , in the field of cost minimization, marketing strategies, bee-keeping, mushroom cultivation, livestock management (poultry, dairy cattle, sheep, turkey, rabbits etc) Nursery management, seed production, home gardening and how to beautify your home gardens, how to add value to products to get more benefits in order to convert farmers to agro-entrepreneurs.
After this practical training sessions, an awareness session on improvement of home gardens was conducted by Mr Chameera (Temporary Agronomist). He explained on how to increase the number of vegetables, fruits and leaves grown in one’s home garden. The participants promised to increase the
number of vegetables, fruits and leaves grown in every one’s home garden to over 30 varieties. He
also introduced a Harvest Book where all farmers have to record what items of vegetables, fruits, yams or leaves sold and the income earned each day to keep a track of how much money they earn each day from the home garden they maintain
