Agriculture in developing Asia is characterized by low productivity. It is often the lowest contributor to a country’s GDP yet employs the largest share of its labor (when compared to Industry and Services sectors). The reasons for low productivity are numerous: land fragmentation, lack of post-harvest infrastructure, low technology utilization, weak market linkages, absent or inefficient markets, information and knowledge asymmetries (or lack thereof). This is further exacerbated by overall socio-economic structural deficiencies such as lack of access to finance and crop insurance. In the countries that LIRNEasia works in, the smallholder agriculture sector constitutes the largest segment of producers.  Being resource constrained, smallholders lack the ability to make the necessary investments that can enable them to increase sector productivity (both yield increases as well as quality improvements of their produce) albeit on a micro-level against the broader structural issues. Increased performance of agricultural smallholders is sine-qua-non for inclusive development not just in agriculture but also at more broad-based level. The 2010 Growth Report by the Commission on Growth and Development mentions utilization of knowledge and integration into global value chains as two of the characteristics of high growth countries. LIRNEasia from its inception has been cognizant of the importance of reducing information and knowledge gaps in the sector. Secondly, we share Schultz’s (1964) proposition of farmers as calculating economic agents, albeit within their small allocative domains constrained by limited skills, knowledge and lack of incentives brought about by structural deficiencies. As such LIRNEasia’s research in agriculture explores the following broad thematic areas:

• Information and knowledge gaps in agricultural value chains.
• Inclusive strategies for greater integration of smallholders into global value chains.
• The effects of the constrained allocative domains of smallholders on their incentives for achieving higher productivity.

Documents

• Reconciliation through Economic Engagement of North and South Farmersin Sri Lanka (Presentation)

  Suthaharan Perampalam, Samali Perera | September – 2019

• Understanding Barriers faced by Fruits/Vegetable Farmers to join the Export Value Chain In Sri Lanka (Presentation)

  A Comparative Assessment of Export Potential Farmers in North and South by Suthaharan Perampalam and Samali Perera. November 2018

• Market Knowledge Transfer Program for Export Potential Farmers in Jaffna District (Course Report)

  Reconciliation Through Economic Development
  1-2 November 2018

• PRESENTATION: Agriculture and Open Data

  Baseline Survey results from the Agriculture and Open Data project can be viewed below:

• Inclusive Information Societies 2 (IIS2)

  LIRNEasia wishes to understand how the capabilities of information and communication technologies (ICTs) can be leveraged to create the conditions for hitherto excluded groups to participate in new economic opportunities in global supply chains in agriculture and services.

• Using ICT to reduce transaction costs in agriculture through better communication

  A case-study from Sri Lanka by Harsha de Silva and Dimuthu Ratnadiwakara

More Documents →

Events

• Inward or outward looking policies post COVID-19?
  Today I participated in a Zoom meeting organized by the Nightwatchman Society attended by around 200 participants where the above question was discussed by a panel of four, including myself.
• Bloom With New Spirit: Reconciliation Through Economic Development
  On the 1st of November, the LIRNEasia team travelled to Jaffna with some southern farmers (who already sell their products to the export market), exporters and experts in agriculture.
• LIRNEasia at conference on food security
  LIRNEasia was invited to participate in the symposium on Food System Innovation in South and Southeast Asia.
• LIRNEasia research utilized in FAO report
  In April 2012, LIRNEasia participated in a regional FAO workshop held in Bangkok.
• Low-cost ICTs in Agriculture – Workshop Report
  Several Canadian and Sri Lankan organizations held a workshop in Peradeniya on Oct.

More Events →

People

Helani Galpaya

Nilusha Kapugama

Ayesha Zainudeen

Suthaharan Perampalam

Blogs and Updates

• Inward or outward looking policies post COVID-19?
  Today I participated in a Zoom meeting organized by the Nightwatchman Society attended by around 200 participants where the above question was discussed by a panel of four, including myself.
• Insights from our work on agriculture to inform current debates on post-COVID-19 economy
  Now is the right time to rethink food-supply chains.
• Insights for current food security debates from our work on agricultural supply chains
  In previous research going back to 2006, LIRNEasia has studied food supply chains, including, but not limited to, fruit and vegetable supply chains in Sri Lanka centered on Sri Lanka’s largest wholesale market in Dambulla which was recently shut down by the government along with several other wholesale markets.
• When food supply chains matter most
  LIRNEasia has been studying food supply chains almost from inception.
• Reconciliation through economic opportunity
  LIRNEasia in association with Neelan Tiruchelvam Trust (NTT) conducted research program which promotes participatory knowledge sharing processes and social integration among fruits and vegetable farmers connected to export value chains in the North and South.
• Reconciliation through Economic Engagement of North and South Farmersin Sri Lanka (Presentation)
  Suthaharan Perampalam, Samali Perera | September – 2019
• Peace to the farmers’ fields (Video)
  A LIRNEasia video project exploring the history of relationships between the North and South of Sri Lanka through the agricultural value chain.
• Understanding Barriers faced by Fruits/Vegetable Farmers to join the Export Value Chain In Sri Lanka (Presentation)
  A Comparative Assessment of Export Potential Farmers in North and South by Suthaharan Perampalam and Samali Perera.
• Market Knowledge Transfer Program for Export Potential Farmers in Jaffna District (Course Report)
  Reconciliation Through Economic Development 1-2 November 2018
• Bloom With New Spirit: Reconciliation Through Economic Development
  On the 1st of November, the LIRNEasia team travelled to Jaffna with some southern farmers (who already sell their products to the export market), exporters and experts in agriculture.
• The solution to problems of low/volatile agri prices is not ICTs, it’s economics
  The search for a silver bullet ICT solution for low/volatile prices for agricultural produce continues, even when it should by now be evident that there is none.
• Why we must continue to focus on ICTs and agricultural productivity
  LIRNEasia has been engaged with the knowledge and information aspects of agriculture since 2006.
• LIRNEasia’s research on agriculture since 2006 goes into op-ed interview in most widely read newspaper
  LIRNEasia has been working on agriculture since 2006.
• PRESENTATION: Agriculture and Open Data
  Baseline Survey results from the Agriculture and Open Data project can be viewed below:
• On World Environment Day: Connecting People to Nature
  June 5th is the World Environment Day.
• Misaligned Incentives: Will Agricultural Instructors Become the Cause of Destruction
  Agricultural Instructors are a central component of the agricultural value chain.
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