Vijayawada: The Andhra Pradesh Community-managed Natural Farming (APCNF) programme, implemented under the Rythu Sadhikara Samstha (RySS), continues to chart new milestones in transforming agriculture towards sustainability and resilience. With over 1.13 million farmers enrolled and more than 4,000 villages engaged, the APCNF has emerged as a globally recognised model for community-led, women-driven, and agroecologically sound farming.
Building on this momentum and responding to growing international interest serving pilot projects in progress in Indonesia and Zambia, the RySS has facilitated a new pilot initiative in Sri Lanka starting June 26. This effort aims at supporting Sri Lanka in building trust and capacity in agroecological agriculture systems.
The Sri Lanka pilot project is being implemented in collaboration with Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement, Sri Lanka’s largest and most broadly embedded non-governmental community development organisation and NOW Partners, an international organisation which helps promoting natural farming, and a longstanding global ally of APCNF.
The collaboration was catalysed by an exploratory visit by Sarvodaya’s leadership to Andhra Pradesh in July 2023 and a subsequent farmer exposure visit in early 2025, which established a strong alignment between the APCNF approach and the aspirations of Sri Lankan farming communities. Following a feasibility assessment by the RySS technical team, a formal partnership has evolved into an operational collaboration. Sarvodaya will serve as the local implementation partner, while Luxembourg-based NOW Partners will extend global outreach and visibility for the initiative.
A dedicated six-member RySS team comprising experienced technical anchors and champion farmers has been deployed in Sri Lanka, people involved in the initiative said. The team is strategically positioned in two agro-ecological zones to work intensively with five farmers in each location during the Yala (May–August) agricultural season.
These farmers will be trained as local champions of natural farming. In the subsequent Maha (September–March) season, the trained farmers will mentor an additional ten farmers each, initiating a cascading, community-led model of scale and knowledge transfer. The pilot will continue through both Yala and Maha seasons until December 2026, ensuring sustained technical, logistical, and institutional support from Sarvodaya and other key organisations.
