Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the Ministry of Education, and the University of Jaffna agreed to implement JICA’s new technical cooperation named ‘The Project for Research and Education Capacity improvement in Dry Zone Agriculture at University of Jaffna’.
Prof. Kapila C. Perera, Secretary, Ministry of Education, Prof. S. Srisatkunarajah, Vice-Chancellor, University of Jaffna, and Yamada Tetsuya, Chief Representative, JICA Sri Lanka Office signed the project agreement.
This technical cooperation project is expected to contribute to strengthening the education, research, social engagement activities of the university that would improve the productivity of the biological resource-based sectors in the Northern Province and enhance their adaptability to climate change.
This Project is to be implemented as follows Japan’s grant aid assistance (LKR 3.
00 billion) to upgrade the research and education facilities of the University, which was completed in February 2021.
The Faculty of Agriculture of the University of Jaffna, the only higher education institution for agriculture in the Northern Province, aims to foster quality human resources, produce innovative technology, and contribute to local development in the field of agriculture, through quality education, advanced research, and community extension.
The Faculty was originally located in Kilinochchi, but during 1996-2014, due to the conflict, the Faculty was temporarily relocated to the Jaffna campus of the University and operated by borrowing facilities from other departments.
As a result, the opportunities for practical training and experiments for students and research activities in dry zone agriculture were limited.
In order to restore the Faculty, JICA has assisted the University in upgrading the facilities through grand aid assistance and capacity development through this new technical cooperation in succession, so that the University can play a central and critical role to enhance dry zone agriculture.
The new technical cooperation, which will be for five (5 years), will kick off in Sri Lanka from early 2022 with the arrival of JICA experts from Japan and intends to fully utilize the upgraded facilities.