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CTI Projects> Saliyapuraorganic Farm |
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15 Acres of
Miracle When
Bandula Senadeera first met University of Wisconsin-Madison educator
Rick Brooks under the light of a bare bulb in Moratuwa, Sri Lanka
one night in 1998, he was discouraged. The 23 year old worker in the
Sarvodaya Institute for Biodiversity Conservation had written more
than 100 letters to international organizations in his quest for
further education and had received only one response. |
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But his persistence eventually
succeeded. Within a year he found an internship at Nature’s
Spirit, a pioneering “eco-village” in South Carolina. He
taught a week-long summer class on village development for
the university’s Teacher Enhancement Program—in English—and
began nurturing the relationships that would endure through
remarkable hardship and hard work. He visited Eagle Heights,
the oldest and largest community garden in the U.S. He
learned about the exciting plans for urban community
supported agriculture, environmental education and organic
gardening research at Troy Gardens.
Since then he has developed what some call “15 acres of
miracles” at a place called Saliyapura, near the ancient
city of Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka. Clearing almost 500
trees, battling extended drought and the nagging doubts of
traditional farmers, Senadeera has now established the first
of Sarvodaya Farms, a demonstration program for sustainable
agriculture that he hopes will be Sri Lanka’s premier
educational enterprise on such methodology.
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Mr. Senadeera
now heads Sarvodaya's International Unit
"He has developed
what some call “15 acres of miracles” at a place called
Saliyapura, near the ancient city of Anuradhapura in Sri
Lanka." |
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His effort marks a
striking counterpoint to the high input and high output methods of
agribusiness, however. He’s building on traditional cultivation
methods that small farmers can afford to supplement their incomes
and feed their families. With a minimal amount of chemicals and not
a John Deere in sight, Saliyapura is showing the way forward by
looking back. Senadeera uses John Jeavons’ double digging methods
and multi-layered growth patterns, natural pesticides and irrigation
methods ideally suited to his country’s dry—and extremely hot—zone.
He has shared his experiences with Asian and western trainees in a
permaculture design certificate program at the other end of Sri
Lanka, too, in the Global EcoVillage Network’s Living and Learning
Center at Tanamalwila.
The idea is simple, really: use people-friendly, nature-friendly
techniques for growing food and income crops that both producers and
consumers can afford. Ten women’s groups in villages organized by
Sarvodaya have already signed up for training, and Saliyapura seeks
institutional, organizational and corporate partners throughout the
world. That’s why it is a very distant partner of the Community Food
and Gardening Network in Madison. Nestled among the list of 40 or
more member organizations on the back of the “Plant, Grow and Share
What You Know” T-shirt is a project that few Madisonians know yet--Saliyapura
Farm.
Documenting the history of those 15 acres, Bandula Senadeera’s
commitment and the network of friends of Saliyapura who have helped
make it possible is only part of the story, though. The more
important message is in the banana and coconut trees, compost piles
and hundreds of feet of irrigation trenches on 15 acres, and the
outreach education program that is now growing into a nationwide
network of projects. And like the vines that snake through the
undergrowth of Saliyapura, that network connects an organic
collection of interests that may reap rich rewards for farmers and
gardeners throughout Sri Lanka and around the globe.
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