The Climate Smart Irrigated Agriculture Project (CSIAP) has planned to develop a simple, but full pledged a Farm Training School named as Govipole Iskole or Wivasaya Patashala at Mannakkulama Village of Thirappane in Anuradhapura District. The Farmer Training School (FTS) of the CSIAP will be used to train farmers and hands on experience on Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) practices and technologies to the beneficiary farmers of hot spot areas in 11 districts of six provinces. Direct beneficiaries of the FTS are 2,700 selected male and female farmers and 150 extension staff of Department of Agriculture and Department of Agrarian Development. The FTS project costs Rs 117M and the Ministry of Agriculture is the main agency responsible for executing the project financed by the World Bank.
The Farm Training School is designed to match the farming environment protecting environmental sustainability and will accommodate maximum of 30 participants at a time. Mannak Kularma CSA farm under Wagayankulama tank is located approximately 30 kilometers South of Anuradhapura town in the North Central Province. It falls under the Thirapppene Divisional Secretariat Division and the Thirapppene Agrarian Service Division.
The FTS is an approach for dissemination of following CSA Technologies
Dr Milinda Pathiraja who has taken the responsibility of the architectural design of the FTS is providing service with his team of the University of Moratuwa free of charge. The CSAIP and the Field Crops Research and Development Institute (FCRDI) have agreed in principle to work in collaboration to develop the Mannakkulama farm in Thirappane ASC division as a CSA farm and a Farm Training School (Govipole Iskole / Wivasaya Patasala) to provide CSA training for the farmers and officials.
The FTS would be the first this kind of properly planned training center available within the Department of Agriculture training network for the use of farmers. It is also envisaged that the FTS will be an asset to the F,C,R,D,I and the Department of Agriculture as well in the long run. CSIAP plans to establish two Farmer Training Schools. The Purpose of having FTS in two different geographical locations is to reflect different soil/resources/crop conditions as well as to promote inter-regional interactions and experience sharing among farmers and field level officials
Training in the following areas will be provided at the FTS;
In addition to that FTS will also be utilized to provide training on farm planning, marketing and value addition, the subjects coming under the Farmer Business School to prepare farmers as entrepreneurs.
The FTS conducts short-term course with practical demonstrations. The syllabus will have two components viz; (a) three-day Training of Trainers programme for the officials and (b) three-day general training programme for the farmers. It will cover CSA technologies and practices which can be applied in both Maha or (Main) and Yala or (Dry) seasons in hot-spot areas in all agricultural categories , wetland paddy cultivation, upland cultivation and homestead cultivation and for Other Food Crops (OFCs). In addition, introductory sessions on farm planning, marketing and value addition will also be included in the syllabus.
The major teaching methodology of the FTS is field demonstration. It is highly adopted in the training methodology since it could be considered as on-farm farmer field training method. Therefore, it is planned to provide support to maintain demonstration plots on various types of crops as decided by the two agencies for the purpose of teaching. The FTS will have demonstration plots for all three farming categories: (a) wetland paddy cultivation; (b) uplands cultivation where Other Food Crops (OFCs), fruits, vegetables, roots and tubers are cultivated; and, (c) homestead cultivation.
