A Discourse Analysis on Climate Smart Agriculture Projects in Sri Lanka

Keywords: Climate Smart Agriculture, Feminist Political Ecologies, Feminist Geographies of Food and Agriculture, Feminist Geographies of Climate Change, Fertilizer Use, Climate Resilient Seeds and Insurance, Irrigation
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

Climate change is a topic of increasing concern in the Dry Zone of Sri Lanka, where certain social groups are more vulnerable to climatic impacts than others. A climate-smart agriculture program implemented in the Dry Zone of Sri Lanka includes the payment of bundled insurance for farmers in the case of extreme climatic events, rehabilitation of tank cascades, handing out climate-resilient seeds, and a climate-smart nutrition-sensitive home garden program. Through a discourse analysis of policy documents, I analyze the climate-smart agriculture programs that have shaped agricultural practices, climate risk, and uncertainty in farming communities. In addition, I find that powerful actors, both locally, nationally, and internationally have come to re-package age-old traditions of agriculture in Sri Lanka as climate-smart through their policy-making decisions. By integrating interviews with key actors within the climate-smart agriculture community in Sri Lanka, I unpack the patterns of access, inclusion, and exclusion that have evolved in relation to climate-smart agriculture use among farmers.