Integrated Rurban Development and Climate Resilience Project

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The World Bank is supporting this long-term commitment through a Series of Projects (SOP) which envisions a two-phased program over a nine-year period that incorporates learning, institutional development for multisector solutions needed to address climate risks, and adjusts the implementation approach as needed across phases. The PDO of the SOP1 is to increase productivity, market access, and climate resilience of agri-food producers in selected areas. This will support Sri Lanka’s objectives of increasing agriculture exports and ensuring a sustainable and climate-resilient agri-food production system. The project aims to achieve this objective through investments in three technical components as:Component 1: Promotion of Climate-Smart Production, Value Addition, and Inclusive Access to Markets (US$30 million). This component will support growth-oriented small and medium producers to establish and/or upgrade their market linkages with off-takers in a market-driven, profitable, and sustainable way and intensify and add value to their production. The Project will do so by: (i) supporting the formation of organized producer groups or producer companies and facilitating Productive Partnerships (PPs) between producers and buyer through the preparation of business plans; and (ii) competitively selecting and facilitating access to blended finance for the most commercially viable, inclusive, and climate-smart business plans. The Project will also spur private sector provision of agri-services targeting youth entrepreneurs through training and business development support. Component 2: Integrated Management of Natural Resources for Climate Resilience (US$55 million). The objectives of this component include (i) improving the institutional governance of natural resources in cascades and village tanks[1] through continued strengthening of cascade management committees[2] (CMCs); (ii) enhancing water resources management in small, medium, and major irrigation systems to increase water use efficiency and productivity, and; (iii) building climate resilience through supporting the accelerated adoption of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices for improving productivity, adaptability, and mitigation. The component builds on, replicates, and scales several successful models and interventions from the CSIAP and the IWWRMP, and aims to bring improved institutional coordination between both the agriculture and irrigation sectors. Component 3: Strengthening the Enabling Environment for Sectoral Growth (US$13 million). This component supports the enabling environment to boost competitiveness and modernization of the agriculture sector by: (i) improving the quality and availability of sector data for improved evidence-based decision-making; (ii) developing critical quality infrastructure for market access and competitiveness, and (iii) supporting the provision of agricultural insurance.