One Table:
Farming Rice, Intensively
June 18, 2009
Country: Sri Lanka
Photo: Thatcher Cook for Mercy Corps
Kanthi Weerasinghe is one of 160 farmers in the village of Yahangala East experimenting with a method of growing rice called SRI, which is short for System of Rice Intensification. As a widowed mother, every little bit of help is welcomed.
For the last five years, since her husband died of a heart attack, Kanthi has been in charge of cultivating three-and-a-half acres of rice paddy. She relies on the harvest — and a small shop in front of her home that sells vegetables and snacks to neighbors and passersby — to sustain her and her two school-age daughters.
Until last year, she and her neighbors have been using what's known as the "broadcast" method of planting rice, which isn't much more than flinging seeds onto a water-soaked field. But, recently, Mercy Corps helped her find a technique that will increase her harvest and improve her family's fortunes...
Read the rest of Kanthi's story — and tales of other women who are working hard for their families — at onetable.mercycorps.org.
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Find out more: onetable.mercycorps.org
One Table:
How You Can Help
Donate $50 by buying a Women's Small Business Kit and help give women in our programs the resources to turn their ideas and energy into successful small businesses.
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One Table: What Can You Bring?
Mercy Corps introduces a new campaign to fight hunger by investing in women. We're calling it One Table, because hunger is a shared problem — and we all have something to contribute to the solution.
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