Dr Prasada from Sri Lanka has participated in AgriFoSe2030's South-South exchange programe. He visited the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines to investigate how varietal adoption is studied in the context of stress factors to rice farming.
Dr Prasada is involved in teaching and research on agricultural economics, environmental economics and development economics at the University of Peradeniya in Sri Lanka. He has completed a BSc in agriculture, a MSc in international development and agricultural economics as well as a PhD in economics. At the moment Dr Prasada is also doins research in the area of climate adaptation finance.
A visit to the Philippines to investigate varietal adoption
Dr Prasada made a visit to the Philippines under a South-South exchange program administrated by Professor Madelene Ostwald, theme leader of one of AgriFoSe2030's four programs.
– During the visit, I interacted with Dr Subir Bairagi (IRRI) with the objective of investigating how varietal adoption is studied in the context of various stress factors to rice farming, says Dr Prasada.
Farmer adaption responses to climate changes
– After returning from the visit, I have studied the field survey data from different South Asian countries on attempting to capture farmer adaptation response to external shocks, mostly abiotic and climate related. Following a close study of the survey data and the relevance of data to the above research question, I am currently performing a statistical analysis of farmer adaptive response to climate shocks using data from Bangladesh, says Dr Prasada.
Interactions between scientists - key to impact
What are your expectations of what the AgriFoSe2030 programme will be working on?
– I consider the facilitation of interaction between scientists is a key to have a significant impact in terms of policy and practice. The AgriFoSe2030 model enhances peer learning and exchange opportunities across different systems whether it is across the so-called North-South or South-South directions. I found my experience with this program to be quite rewarding. It is desirable if the program can facilitate integration of scientists in the global programs such as the initiatives by SEI, says Dr Prasada.
Smallholder entry and exit behaviour from agriculture
Tell us one thing that you are passionate about related to food security and sustainable agriculture!
– I am passionate about small holder entry and exit behaviour from agriculture in the age of corporate involvement in agriculture through Public Private partnerships. This topic, I believe, is key to understanding the sustainability of smallholder agriculture. With large-scale investments of corporate companies, the farmers are slowly being reduced to farm workers, and moving away from traditional farm household models. Small land plots are being rented out to expand the operations to economically rewarding scales. Food and nutrition security of local communities may be affected by the reorganisation of developing country agriculture sector as the low cost production units of international food value chains, concludes Dr Prasad.
