ICRAF Sri Lanka Office

CARP-ICRAF Tree Domestication Project

 

Sri Lanka Council for Agricultural Research Policy (CARP) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) for Scientific and Technical Cooperation in Research and Training on Agroforestry in September 2004.  According to the MOU and to facilitate activities in Sri Lanka, ICRAF Sri Lanka Office was inaugurated on 7 March 2005 at the CARP Secretariat by Mr Tissa Warnasuriya, Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Lands and Irrigation and Chairman of CARP. Sri Lanka became 30th member country of ICRAF on 7 March 2005 and third in the South Asian Region.

 

The ICRAF Sri Lanka Office host the CARP-ICRAF Tree Domestication Project.  The objective of the Project is to network domestication research and development activities on fruit and timber trees and medicinal plants in Sri Lanka which involve identification of stakeholders and their research activities, prioritization of species for domestication, identify gaps which hinder the acceleration of domestication for both commercial and small scale utilization.  This project will be a part of the South Asia Network of Tree Domestication with India, Nepal and Bangladesh.  The project will help partners to use, enhance and adapt these systems, and to identify and remove policy constraints. It will also develop models for germplasm management, as well as systems to conserve genetic resources, allow small farmers to benefit from these resources. The project will function for five years.

 

Eight months old project already achieved the following :

 

1.       Conducted a workshop on Recent Developments in Research on Underutilized Fruit Trees on 24 August 2005 at the Postgraduate Institute of Agriculture, University of Peradeniya.  Proceedings was already published.

2.         Launched  ICRAF Sri Lanka Office and CARP ICRAF Tree Domestication Project on 7 March 2005.

3.         Conduced  a Regional Workshop-cum-Training Program on Tree Domestication from 9-10 March 2005, at the Postgraduate Institute of Agriculture, University of Peradeniya with 23 participants including participants from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Pakistan.

4.         Initiated three tree domestication networks, namely Fruit Tree, Timber Tree and Medicinal Plants.

 

The project plan to complete the following activities before the end of the year:

 

1.         Development of species database and their uses in current situation on identified 9 species from three networks.  At the end project will produce status reports on nine priority species which leads to development of domestication strategies.

2.         Germplasm collection, characterization morphological, chemical and genetic), evaluation on amla, beli fruit, annona, woodapple and pumelo.

3.         Establishment of germplasm trials for evaluation of germplasm and multiplication at University and selected Agriculture Department Farms.

4.         National workshop on agroforestry priority setting for Sri Lanka and identification of related policy issues.