Problem overview:

     Awareness and visions: To increase the capacity of rural villages in producing income a programme called Export Production Village has been established and successfully carried out in Sri Lanka.

     Integrating stakeholders: The stakeholders involved in this programme are the rural villagers under EPV programme, a newly set up export company to support production and a trade promotion organization to facilitate the transaction.

Background:

      Government working in partnership with farmers for sustainable agriculture

      The Export Production Village (EPV) concept successfully introduced in Sri Lanka in early 198Os has the following main objectives among others.

• To effectively mobilise rural raw material resources and human skills, for the national export development effort.
  
  
• To ensure optimum benefits of production for export, to rural producers of export products.

      The institutional framework of an EPV takes the form of an incorporated 'Peoples Company' whose shareholders are the rural producers of the project area under the specific project. This entity is linked to an established Exporting Company, which acts as a sort of foster parent and undertakes to purchase the product(s)of the EPV for export. The state trade promotion organization (TPO) acts as the link (and facilitator) of this business relationship and ensures fair trading practices between the two parties to ensure mutual optimum benefits.

      The concept has successfully demonstrated the benefits that accrue to rural producers as a result of their collective strength, by effectively eliminating 'middlemen' who generally exploit individual rural producers in developing countries.

      The first model EPV project set up in a rural area called 'Dambadeniya' about 60 Km. from Colombo, produces consumer tea packs out of a local reed called 'Thala'. The tea packs, which are hand woven baskets of beautiful designs, are used to pack quality tea by the exporting company for export to discerning export markets.

      This EPV which commenced with a few producers, has at present over 2500 stakeholders and is a strong economic entity.

      Although environmental considerations did not have any significance among the poor rural producers at its inception, awareness and regard for environmental impacts has assumed increasing importance among them alone with the improvement of their living standards.

      The 'Thala' palm from which the reed is extracted from its inflorescence takes over 10 years to mature. Once the inflorescence is cut the tree dies. The rural producers therefore realised that unplanned exploitation of this valuable raw material resource will ultimately result in their economic downfall. Hence they undertook, the planned cultivation of this palm for sustainable growth. They also began to look into ways and means of using alternative raw material and discovered another valuable reed called Galleha, which grew in abundance in marshes and was hitherto not exploited economically.

      Consumer tea packs made out of this material is being exported very successfully.

      The economic strength of the stakeholders of the EPV has also encouraged them to undertake investments to improve their hitherto poor sanitation facilities and housing as a result of the awareness created regarding the impact on the environment of their living standards.

      The EPV concept has been successfully introduced to other rural areas in Sri Lanka, as a means of poverty alleviation and empowerment of the rural poor, facilitating beneficial environmental impacts.

See also Sri Lanka's Organic Cultivation of Cashew Nuts