FAO recognizes Sri Lanka’s dry zone’s Cascaded Tank-Village System as a globally important agricultural heritage system
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations is to designate Sri Lankan dry zone’s Cascaded Tank-Village System (CTVS) as one of the 14 new globally important agricultural heritage systems in the world at a ceremony in Rome, Italy today (19).
Reports state that the CTVS is a connected series of tanks organised within a micro-catchment of the dry zone landscape, storing, conveying and utilising water from an ephemeral rivulet. It is an ancient, widely used and unique traditional agriculture system mainly found in the dry zone of Sri Lanka. The system has evolved over a period of nearly two millennia. It provides water for irrigation, domestic purposes, animals and ecosystems.
The system (Illanga Gammana) takes dominance over all other systems due to its expansive coverage, unique technology, sustainability and resilience to natural disasters (droughts, epidemics, floods, cyclones and external invasions) high biodiversity and many other beneficial characteristics, media reports further state.
The FAO is to today celebrate these Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS). Fourteen new agricultural heritage sites from China, Egypt, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Portugal, Spain and Sri Lanka will be designated during an award ceremony that will bring together high-level officials.
FAO has stated that for centuries, farmers, herders, fishers and forest people have sculpted our land to create agricultural systems of exceptional aesthetic beauty preserving biodiversity and creating resilient ecosystems and a valuable cultural heritage.
OSL take:
The FAO’s recognition of Sri Lanka’s ancient agriculture system is an indication of the importance of the country’s agriculture sector as well as the many opportunities for expansion in the sector. The prominence paid by Sri Lanka to its agriculture sector would create many investment opportunities in the sector.
| Article Code : | VBS/AT/19042018/Z_6 |