Partnership projects

Academic Partnerships

Lifelong Learning for Farmers Project

Commonwealth of Learning (COL) Lifelong learning for farmers (L3F) project

♦  One of the main outreach projects of the OUSL is the Lifelong learning for famers project which is funded by the Commonwealth of Learning. Department of Export Agriculture (DEA), the technical Department of the government of Sri Lanka that is entrusted with the research, development and extension activities of the export agriculture crops is a partner and a beneficiary of this project.

♦  The export agriculture sector of Sri Lanka contributes to 17% of total export earnings of agricultural sector and is the second largest after tea sector. This sector bears a significance as a source of revenue from international to rural level.

♦  The Department of Export Agriculture (DEA) is at present engaged with more than 300,000 farmer families distributed over 17 districts in the island and they are served through 300 field officers.

♦  The members of the farm families depend on extension officers on technical knowledge on crop production to marketing and also to get benefits of government promotional schemes such as subsidies. One field officer carters to nearly 1000 farming families and expected to provide training, technical support and disburse government promotional schemes.

♦  This heavy dependency on limited resources poses challenge for intensive capacity building and offering technical support. There is clear potential to expand the EA crops into non-conventional area including those in the north and east of the country.

♦  It is envisaged that the mobile app, which is developed under phase 1 will bridge the communication gap between the farmers and extension officers effectively and contribute to enhance the return of investment in agricultural subsidy schemes. Given the extensive penetration of mobile connections in the rural communities in Sri Lanka, which is 149% of the total population in 2020, mobile phone is the most cost effective and convenient mode of information dissemination at present. The app that is being developed under this project, will contain following features.

 

Objectives

♦  The aim of this project is to develop a mobile app as a component of the proposed eLearning platform for the farmers and stakeholders engaged in cultivation and production of export agriculture-based products.

♦  Contribute to knowledge empowerment of farming community and promote export agricultural sector as a means of ensuring their livelihood security

♦  Offer and affordable technology meditation solution to increase the return on  investment of agricultural subside scheme.

♦  This eLearning platform is specifically meant to empower and enhance participation of farming community to promote export agricultural sector in Sri Lanka.

Project Consortium

The Department of Export Agriculture	Commonwealth of Learning
The Open University of Sri Lanka

Project Management Team

 

 

Deliverables

♦  Prepared and consolidated 20 text-based learning materials in Sinhala and Tamil which are suitable for mobile phone-based applications for 10 export agricultural crops including pepper, cinnamon, coffee, cocoa, nutmeg, betel, areca, nut.

♦  Prepared and consolidated 30 video-based learning materials in Sinhala and Tamil (3 videos per crop and related practices).

♦  Tested and evaluated the text-based and video-based contents for relevance, accessibility and gender sensitivity by the project management team and the selected farmers.

♦  Developed Software Requirement Specification for the mobile phone-based application.

♦  Developed and tested a mobile app simulator which is downloadable through the link below.

Link to Download the App:   

1.  This simulator will install in android smart phones / tablets only. So, access this mail (above link) from your android smart phone.
2. It is recommended to turn off “Dark Mode”, if it is turned on, for better view.
3. Internet connection is required to view Videos and to download the PDF files.
4. Phone Back Button is disabled for the internal navigation. Instead use the Back button given on the app (Top Left).
5. Phone back button allowed only in-home page to Exit the App.