The Lanka Farmers’ Forum, MTCP2 partner in Sri Lanka, showcased their initiatives on adding value to their farmer members’ products at the national impact assessment and transition planning workshop held in Kandy, Sri Lanka on 5-6 July 2019. The activity was also attended by farmer leaders, government representatives, and donor partners.
The leaders of nine district farmers forum and their national level Lanka Farmers Forum, with around 20,000 members, were proud of their achievements as a platform in terms of policies pushed and value addition activities conducted with members. They also seriously thought about transitioning their associations into cooperative societies to better provide economic services to their members and empower them in both political and economic spheres. We look forward to another fruitful journey with them in the next five years.
Ms. Thanu, a young Sri Lankan farmer who participated in the recent back-to-back workshop and consultation on youth and women in agriculture and gender sensitive value chain held in Nepal, also attends the MTCP2 impact assessment and transition planning workshop in Kandy, Sri Lanka. MTCP2 aims to encourage the youth to engage in agriculture. 
Exhibit of Sri Lankan farmers’ products. MTCP2 partner farmer groups in Sri Lanka are adding value to their products by doing simple processing instead of selling their products in raw form. This way, they generate more income and also extends the shelf life of their products.
Ms Malkanthi of the Department of Cooperative Development of Sri Lanka shared an experience of a farmer cooperative that needed a market for 40,000 kilos of pepper. The department connected them to other women cooperatives that eventually bought all the pepper. This kind of coop-to-coop exchange is what we hope to see happening in the coop movement in the countries, in Asia and in the world.
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