Agriculture Support Policy (LK0030)

Empower farmers with an Agriculture Decision Support and Agribusiness Support System
1st March 2019 – 31st August 2021
Lead implementing agency/actor Ministry in charge of Agriculture
Commitment description
What is the public problem that the commitment will address? Seasonal agricultural production fluctuation and price fluctuations adversely affect the farmers’ income mainly because they are not able to explore seasonal information on extents already cultivated, recommended crops and varieties, agro-input availability, technology availability, local officers to be contacted for advice etc. This unstable environment leads the farmers to abandon crop production livelihoods. Further, delays in emergency food imports can affect national/regional food security.
What is the commitment? The purpose of this commitment is to provide farmers with a single platform to access all necessary information on agriculture and to facilitate agribusiness and thereby empower them to take timely decisions to improve their income. Access will be supported through multiple means such as web based and mobile based channels.
How will the commitment contribute to solve the public problem? This commitment will contribute to minimize the excess agricultural production and minimize the price fluctuations ensuring a reasonable income for farmers and an affordable price for consumers on crop produce. The e-Platform will pool scattered agriculture information from various other Information Systems and improve the accessibility of information to farmers, agribusiness operators, officials and policy makers. Ready access to information on agriculture based demand and supply and price information will reduce inefficiencies in agriculture marketing functions. The commitment will provide an e-Platform having two sub components, namely information dissemination sub platform and an online classified sub component, supported with a user-friendly mobile App for farmers. A common platform will be developed for Agriculture Sector which will include the outputs / report / information generated by the other major Information Systems of the Department of Agriculture such as Crop Forecasting Information, Seed availability, Climate & Weather information, Pest Surveillance, Soil Reporting Systems and Price Information. This platform will provide information on extents already cultivated, recommended crops and varieties, agro-input availability, technology availability, local officers to be contacted for advice etc. Further, an online classified will be developed to support agriculture marketing with the support of an Android App to access and post the advertisements by farmers.
Why is this commitment relevant to OGP values? This commitment enhances the OGP value of access to information as the e-Platform will improve the accessibility of agricultural information. By facilitating information dissemination on agriculture based demand and supply, it will promote transparency on price information for farmers.
Additional information The commitment provides support to decision making by Ministry in charge of Trade on emergency food imports; supports the Agriculture Programme of the Ministry in charge of Agriculture (Api Wawalai Api Kanne); recommendations and commitments in the Draft Sustainable Sri Lanka: Vision & Strategic Path and the Vision 2025.
Milestone Activity with a verifiable deliverable Start Date: End Date:
1. Fully functioning and update databases are available for farmers to receive crop cultivation and crop forecasting information. Ongoing June 2021
2. An e-Agriculture Platform is in place as a decision support tool for farmers to obtain relevant information on Agriculture such as crop recommendation, seed availability, technology availability, local officers to be contacted for advice and market information. Updating existing databases, development of APIs to link them with e-Agriculture Platform and development of new databases if needed. March 2019 June 2021
3. A database is developed for farmers to receive daily price list on crop produces. March 2019 June 2021
4. A Web / Mobile app based service is introduced linking buyers and sellers of agriculture sector with the possibility of exploring the local and international market in agriculture. March 2019 June 2021
5. IT infrastructure development, publicity and capacity building March 2019 June 2021

7. E-Agriculture Platform

Verifiable: Yes

Relevant to Open Government: Yes

Potential Impact: Moderate

Completion: Limited

In March 2021, the Ministry of Plantation Industries and the Ministry of Agriculture announced the development of the Agro Bizz – Smart Agro Integration Platform by Celata Tech (Pvt) Ltd. This initiative is contextualized by the Sri Lanka 2016–2020 e-agriculture strategy, which focused on integrating information communication technology and access to information, ^[47] but struggled with implementation. ^[48] The platform is intended to be used for management of farmers, farms, crops, fertilizer, pesticides, seeds, retailers, food processors, exporters, soil, agricultural water supply, and pest control. It will also be enabled to forecast crops yield, fertilizer requirement, and seed requirement, as well as managing financial aid and offering an online trading platform to directly link farmers and buyers without the need for intermediaries. [49] By the end of 2021, this platform had not been publicly launched. In terms of scope, only 67% of the population were mobile phone users, and 60% were internet users by 2021. [50]