Participants at the validation workshop, bringing together various stakeholders who would collaboratively develop the E-agriculture Strategy for Sri Lanka.

Many stakeholders acknowledge the need for a national e-agriculture strategy - a guideline on leveraging the advances in ICT to address some of the challenges faced in agriculture. However, most countries are yet to adopt a strategic approach in making the best use of ICT developments for agriculture.   ­­E-agriculture strategies will help to rationalize resources (financial and human) and address holistically, the ICT opportunities and challenges for the agricultural sector in a more efficient manner while generating new revenue streams and improve the livelihoods of the rural community as well as ensure the goals of the national agriculture master plan are achieved. The existence of e-agriculture strategy and its alignment with other government plans will prevent e-agriculture projects and services from being implemented in isolation.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) engaged with Department of Agriculture (DoA) together with the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRCSL) and other stakeholders in developing the national e-agriculture strategy for Sri Lanka. The same was approved in June 2016, thus making the country one of the first in the world to have a comprehensive e-agriculture strategy. In continuing the technical support, FAO and ITU are engaging with DoA, TRCSL and Information and Communication Technology Agency to design, develop and implement key ICT for agriculture services for the Ministry of Agriculture.