Ray of hope for Eastern resettlers

Tharmalingam Sudarshan, a farmer, returned to his home in Vavunathivu town, Batticaloa District, in Eastern Sri Lanka in July 2007, having fled the area for three months due to conflict between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and Government Forces. He found his house destroyed by elephants, and his farmland fallow.

A UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) project helped him test the soil to choose the best crops and provided him with seeds and fertiliser.

The new crops have just come in and are keeping his family fed and providing a small profit from the sale of the surplus, as well as giving him a stock of seeds for the next harvest.

"I have been working hard to cultivate my land," Sudarshan said, "and that has kept my mind off my worries."

With the Government promoting the return of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Batticaloa, some UN agencies and other aid organisations are focusing on livelihood projects that can give returner families a source of food and income.

Two projects initiated by the FAO and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) target farmers and fishermen and hold out hope of long-term benefit to some 6,000 people who fled their homes last year.

Under a US $44,390 project funded by Spain, the FAO began in March 2008 providing seed paddy, pulse grains, vegetable seed, fertiliser and poultry to 5,265 farmers in Batticaloa West in Batticaloa District and Eachchilampattu in Trincomalee District.

"We had a high demand from returners and the project did not have enough funds to cover everyone who was in need. But at least we have made a start," said FAO's Vaigunthan.

The agency targets small farmers rather than large landowners, and is helping them to produce enough food for their families and, perhaps, even a small surplus.

Restoring livelihoods has also been a valuable coping mechanism during a tough period when their incomes were often non-existent and obtaining sufficient food was a challenge, Vaigunthan said.

Technical assistance is given by FAO to improve agricultural techniques, ascertain the best crops to plant and keeping poultry. FAO also provides seeds and pesticides.

The ICRC runs a complementary project for fishermen. The $95,592 project stocked four freshwater reservoirs in Batticaloa District in 2008 with 400,000 fingerlings of seven types of fish.

As the fish grow and spawn, the objective is to get more than 480 fishermen back to work in Vaharai and Pattipalai towns in Batticaloa District.

Sellan Thangeswaran, who is engaged in fresh water and lagoon fishing, fled an upsurge in violence in 2006 and returned to his home in Mathurankernikulam town in April 2007.

The beneficiaries will start fishing in the four reservoirs six months after the restocking, said Massimiliano Cartura, the economic security delegate of the ICRC office in Batticaloa District.

The FAO has distributed 128 canoes and 481 kits with three different types of nets so that the fishermen can operate in other water sources in the interim.

"Their economic situation should start to improve immediately because of the donation of technical equipment, but, of course, the peak will be reached when the reservoirs are ready to be harvested," Cartura told IRIN.

Under the ICRC project, the Government's Fisheries Department also trained 90 people in making and maintaining nets and in the theoretical aspects of freshwater fishing to help the community fish without damaging eco-systems or stock levels.

IRIN