Ecowave: Staying true to the earth

Ecowave Spice Processing Unit

By Tamara Soru 

The Italian Cooperation, together with the Italian NGO ICEI (Institute for International Economic Cooperation) began a project in June 2018 to spur rural development in Sri Lanka with the aim of increasing production quality and quantity rice and spice farmers through organic cultivation and more sustainable agricultural practices. 

ICEI, together with partner Ecowave, a social enterprise, sought interested farmers who wanted to engage in this process of cultivation, which is economically, socially and environmentally more beneficial. The response from the farmers differed, depending on their background and understanding of the benefits accruing from this process.  The project is constantly seeking ways to motivate farmers to adopt more sustainable agricultural practices, balancing profit with the creation of a resilient agricultural system.

Many farmers are reluctant to convert into organic agriculture due to the fear of less yield, which naturally occurs, during the process of converting the land in the first three to five years. But one of the main challenges the project faces is that farmers don’t fully comprehend the cost-benefit of organic versus conventional agriculture. In fact, they often point out that organic cultivation requires more work than using readymade products. 

ICEI and Ecowave have been conducting specialised training and awareness programs to create understanding among the farmers.  It is heartening that some farmers have well understood this concept and value the whole set of benefits. As of now, the project has supported about 400 farmers to adopt organic practices. Of these, 300 have formed an association to further the concept of both the organic and the Fair Trade international market. Their produce includes pepper, cinnamon, vanilla, chili, ginger, turmeric, nutmeg and cloves.  The other 100 farmers are in rice cultivation with 46 being successful in obtaining the Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) certification to sell organic traditional varieties of rice for the domestic market.

Ecowave also runs a spice factory in Buttala in the Moneragala District, committed to processing farmers’ products to high food safety international standards and quality control. Prior to the pandemic, there were plans to design and create an international market connection through the organisation of business trips and farmers’ representatives participating in European and Asian fairs. A primary purpose is to facilitate export to foreign markets, which generates the premium income that farmers expect for their effort in converting into organic.

Now that mobility is seriously hampered by the pandemic, together with our partners both in Sri Lanka and abroad, in particular with Fair Trade Italy, we are looking at different strategies for establishing direct contacts with international traders. Currently, we support farmers and micro entrepreneurs in the agro sector with training to upgrade their skills in business management and marketing, packaging and labeling, as well as food processing. We offer training sessions jointly with the opportunity to access a co-funding program to acquire machinery and tools to create additional value for their products.  We have fully supported 34 micro-entrepreneurs and about 15 more are in the process of joining the program. 

Our motivation is the farmers and micro-entrepreneurs’ success stories.  We have also learned different ways to constantly encourage them and our objective is to expand our reach and propose more advanced solutions towards a self-sustained agricultural system.

Paddy farmers

Inopa farmers