It was 2010, as any newly married couple we ware looking to make some investments. This idea blossomed and we’ve spent few years years looking for a good farmland in Sri lanka.
Coming from a farming family, growing up in my grand parents house I have seen how small farmers suffer. I wanted to make this right and demonstrate that small farmers can thrive.
Born and brought-up in a city, my wife had and still have a rather romantic view on farming. So buying a small farmland was something we both wanted to do.
Thambagamuwa is a small village situated in the Sabaragamuwa foothills near Pallebedda where our parents live. My parents found this land near Thambagamuwa village. This land is not an ideal farmland we would have purchased, its slightly rocky, steep hills and has a rather difficult access road. However, we had one advantages in buying this land. my parents lived just twenty minute tuk tuk ride away from the land and they could look after the land. While we did not consider this as a key requirement in our land search, it turned out to be the most important feature one should look for when buying a land for agriculture.
You need someone trustworthy to look after your land. This account for more than 50% to the success of the operation. If any one wants to buy a land for agriculture in Sri Lanka, the topmost consideration must be the plan on “Who is going to look after the property”. One day I will write a blog post on “How to manage a farm from a distance” to account few things we learned over the years
This was an old Chena plantation that was being developed by one of the local businessman.
This plantation had few acres of cinnamon and few acres of pepper growing at the time. Most of these crops are using local varieties and local techniques to, grow, maintain and harvest the crops. WE started with a four acre land parcel and ended up building a land that is of about 15 acres in extent. This is no way a large land. It would be considered a medium size farm land in this area, if we consider the productivity of the land (its geography, soil, water availability etc) this land could even be considered a small holding. But we finally are proud land owners, we now have to make it work for us. and its the most challenging part!
This land was for us to develop when we go back to Sri Lanka. So we did not encourage aggressive development of the land. We have allowed the caretaker of the land to work under the supervision of our parents with least possible burden. This after all turned out to be a good thing!