Crisis-hit Sri Lanka seeks ‘value-add’ with research

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By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 29.04.2024 (SciDev.Net): Crisis-hit Sri Lanka is focusing its research funding this year on projects that can generate direct economic benefits for the country, build capacity, and enhance human resource development, according to the chief executive of its National Research Council (NRC).

“We will be providing grants to projects that value-add to natural resources and minerals in the country, renewable energy, agriculture, climate change and food security, and medical research,” says NRC’s Chief Executive Officer Shanika Jayasekera.

Sri Lanka has been hit by acute inflation and a lack of foreign investment that has led to dramatic cuts in research funding and a crisis in its healthcare system.

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Philippine research model targets ‘real-world solutions’

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A fisheries scientist engaging with the community in Del Carmen mangrove forests in Siargao island. Photo Credit: ©National Research Council of the Philippines (NRCP)

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 08.04.2024 (SciDev.Net): Engaging with the community in research projects from the very outset ensures that research translates into meaningful real-world solutions, according to the head of the National Research Council of the Philippines (NRCP).

“This is contributing to the overall development of communities and by domino effect to the progress of the country and the wider ASEAN region,” NRCP Executive Director Bernardo Sepeda says.

Established in 1933 and now part of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), the NRCP champions transdisciplinary research, involving all stakeholders from inception to disseminating the solution, which “ensures that science translates into real-world solutions for the people who need it”, according to Sepeda.

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Can preserving Goa’s Khazans address climate threats?

2 Comments read Climate Change, Environment & Development, Health & Science
A khazan dyke/sluice gate in Divar island, Tiswadi taluka of Goa. Photo Credit: ©Elsa Fernandes, President, Khazan Society of Goa

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 04.04.2024 (IPS): Growing up in a khazan ecosystem, the traditional agricultural practice followed in the south-western Indian state of Goa, Elsa Fernandes would love sitting in a koddo, a woven bamboo structure for storing paddy. Her family members would pour paddy around her and with the growing pile, she would rise to the top and then jump down with joy.

“Rice crop for us meant play, work and earnings. Whatever I am today is because of the khazans,” says Fernandes, an environmental architect and president of the Goa Khazan Society, an organization of concerned citizens and experts dedicated to preserving the khazan ecosystem.

The khazan ecosystem has played an intrinsic role in alleviating the effects of soil salinization, conserving biodiversity, and ensuring food security for over 3500 years. But this sustainable agriculture practice is facing increasing pressure from neglect, mismanagement, environmental degradation, and commercialization of land and fishing rights, even as threats posed by climate change loom large.

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