Nagesvaran’s dream comes true
When 43-year-old Nagesvaran finally returned to his village of
Mangalaaru South, Mullaitivu in June 2011 with his wife Vasanthaleela
and five children after spending two years in Menik Farm, he found that
his house was partially destroyed and his land barren.
A full time paddy farmer before he was displaced, Nagesvaran had no
income and no means to resume cultivation in the five acres of abandoned
paddy after his resettlement. However, he was able to begin a new
chapter in his life after becoming a beneficiary of the FAO seed paddy
project for resettling families in Mullaitivu. FAO's seed paddy
programme during the Maha 2011/12 season was funded by the Central
Emergency Response Fund (CERF) and USAID, with the Agriculture, Land,
Livestock and Irrigation Ministry of the Northern Province as the key
implementing partners.
Nagesvaran received 15 bushels of seed paddy from FAO in November
2011, along with some agricultural tools including tarpaulin sheets, a
bush knife, a mammoty and a rake. He has just harvested his first crop
in several years and managed to sell 120 bags of paddy while reserving
20 for consumption. Moreover, he cultivated ground nut in a half-acre
patch, for which the ground nut was also granted by FAO under separate
funding from the Kingdom of Norway.
Nagesvaran's dream is to rebuild his house through a loan and repay
it by the income generated through rice and ground nut harvests. |