SRICANSOL I

The SRICANSOL project was initiated in 1995 as a twinning project between the Soil Science Society of Sri Lanka (SSSSL) and Canadian Society of Soil Science (CSSS) through Agriculture Institute of Canada (AIC) partnership program funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). The SRICANSOL I consisted of 4 phases. The management of the project was through a steering committee appointed by the executive committee of the Soil Science Society of Sri Lanka and two members from Canadian Society of Soil Science. The first phase which was implemented from 1995 to 1998 was on “Characterization, Classification and Evaluation for Land Use Management of the Wet Zone of Sri Lanka”. The tangible outputs of this phase of the project consisted of the publication on” Soils of the Wet Zone of Sri Lanka” in English, Sinhala and Tamil Languages, the Fact Sheets of the Wet Zone of Sri Lanka. This phase of the project was awarded the 2nd place in National Awards for Excellence in Agricultural Research.

Due to the successful completion of Phase I, funding was provided for the Phase II (1998-2001) to extend the characterization and mapping o the Intermediate zone and to “Develop a Digital Soil Database Management System for Sri Lanka”. With the need for completing the soils of the whole country the Phase III was initiated in 2000 and completed by 2003. This phase included the characterization and mapping of the Dry zone of Sri Lanka and to ‘develop a Land Resource Information System for land Evaluation in Sri Lanka”. Once the three phases were completed, there was a need for sustainability and further development of the database. The sustainability phase which was on “Using the SRICANSOL Soil database for Sustaining Agri-Environmental Health in Sri Lanka – Enhancing Human Well Being ” was carried on from 2004 to 2006.

The SRICANSOL while producing many tangible products related to the project, funded the printing of the Journal of the Soil Science Society of Sri Lanka from Vol. 9 (1996) to Vol. 17 (2005), the new improved Newsletter, and many technical bulletins. While documenting new information many workshops and field days were held to disseminate the new knowledge for the SSSSL members, extension officers of the Department of Agriculture, Export Agriculture, Tea and coconut research Institutes, lectures of Agriculture Schools, School Teachers in Agriculture, graduate and undergraduate students of many universities

Project 2