UK supports FAO’s eastern flood recovery programme

The United Kingdom has committed £100,000 towards emergency assistance to flood victims in Sri Lanka though the Food and Agriculture Organisation is Eastern Flood Recovery Programme.

Through the UK’s support for the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) Eastern Flood Recovery Programme, up to 30,000 households in the Eastern Province received vegetable seed kits this Yala 2011 season to cultivate home gardens. These vulnerable farm based households from the Eastern districts of Ampara, Batticaloa and Trincomalee had lost their entire crop during the previous Maha 2010/11 season due to the heavy rains and flooding, which occurred in two phases, between December 2010 and February 2011. Two types of assorted vegetable seed kits (15,000 kits of each type) were provided depending on farmer preference, which included seeds of bushitao, bitter gourd, amaranthus, tomato, chilli, okra, snake gourd, brinjal and capsicum. Each kit contained sufficient seed to cultivate up to a quarter acre per household. FAO has worked in partnership with the Department of Agriculture and Divisional Secretariats in the targeted districts to select beneficiaries for the vegetable seed kits. Emphasis was made to select and assist vulnerable and women headed households as a priority.