Agroforestry project on tea and coconut plantations in Sri Lanka
Initiated by the Netherlands Embassy and in collaboration with various Sri Lankan and Dutch partners, the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) team territorial development (GRO) coordinates an agroforestry pilot project. The pilot takes place on degraded tea and coconut plantations.
Sri Lanka economically depends heavily on its tea and coconut sectors. These sectors, however, are faced with the challenge to innovate and accelerate action on sustainability. In collaboration with various Sri Lankan and Dutch partners, the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) team territorial development (GRO) coordinates a pilot project called ‘Agroforestry on tea and coconut plantations in Sri Lanka’.
RVO as facilitator in agricultural transition
Sri Lanka is the fourth largest tea producer and the fourth largest coconut exporter in the world. The tea and coconut sectors are of critical importance for the national economy and rural livelihoods. Unfortunately the sectors and their sustainability are at risk as a substantial part of the (largescale) monoculture coconut and tea plantations are degraded. These plantations face serious challenges in terms of land degradation, aging of the plantations, climate change, price volatility, labor scarcity and increasing production costs.
Diversification through an agroforestry approach could regenerate the productivity and viability of the plantations, while generating benefits to the environment and rural populations. RVO serves as the facilitator and initiator of a public-private partnership to support a transition towards sustainable agriculture through agroforestry in tea and coconut plantations.
The value of agroforestry
The agroforestry project aims to contribute to enhanced environmental and socioeconomic sustainability of the production systems of the Sri Lankan tea and coconut plantation sectors. Agroforestry combines different types of woody and non-woody crops and sometimes animal species to create synergies between them which provides multiple environmental, social and economic benefits. Agroforestry-based interventions have the potential to restore the productivity of degraded tea and coconut plantations. Production of goods and services will diversify and environmental and economic performance will improve.
While there is strong momentum for agroforestry, a transformation of degraded plantations into highly productive, and economically and socially viable agroecosystems is not straight-forward. Agroforestry requires adaptation to the specific climatic and social context and may also ask for new market linkages and alternative business models. Cross-sectoral collaboration is essential. Agroforestry in this project is thus piloted in a way that integrates agronomic, environmental, social and economic aspects.
The role of RVO/GRO
On behalf of RVO Private Sector Development (PSD) Toolkit, in cooperation with the Netherlands Embassy in Colombo, RVO team Territorial Development (RVO/GRO) has designed the project setup. As the project lead, RVO/GRO strategically coordinates the project and its members from different organizations. RVO/GRO also takes a leading role in building dialogues and organizing participatory multi-stakeholder processes, for example through bringing together the Project Advisory Committee with its various participants representing all four corners of the Dutch Diamond: public sector, private sector, knowledge institutions, and civil society.
Through this participatory approach the project aims to achieve a high level of involvement from stakeholders on local, national and international levels. Both public stakeholders, such as the Sri Lankan Tea and Coconut Research Institutes and Sri Lankan ministries, as well as stakeholders from the private sector, such as owners, managers and employees of the plantations, are actively involved.
Project setup
At the start of this project, one tea and one coconut plantation were selected that could provide pilot locations. These plantations are motivated to experiment in a participatory setting and are willing and able to make (financial) investments for the suggested interventions. The plantations are supported by the project team, consisting of IUCN Sri Lanka, the University of Peradeniya, Wageningen University and Research, and RVO/GRO. After conducting a baseline study on both plantations, two tailor-made agroforestry models (one for each plantation) were produced in a co-creative manner.
Progress of the project
The project is currently in the implementation phase. The plantations have finalized the planting of the additional crops in between the main cash crops tea and coconut. Coconut palms are combined with spices such as pepper and cinnamon, and fruits such as jackfruit, annona, banana and pineapple. At the other plantation, tea bushes are combined with coffee, fruits such as avocado and durian, areca nuts and a kithul palm tree.
Now that the agroforestry plots have been completed, the stage of monitoring and evaluation is starting. At both plantations the agroforestry pilot plot is being compared against a control plot to ensure proper monitoring and evaluation of the ecological benefits. Besides ecological benefits, social and economic benefits are being monitored based on several indicators. This year the project also focus on further developing the business case and providing training on, for example, soil and water management.
The project will finalize in March 2025. Guidelines will be published with lessons learned to inspire other plantations and stakeholders to start with agroforestry. To facilitate this, the project highlights the importance of public-private partnerships and building an internationally embedded agroforestry network in Sri Lanka.