Abstract:
In the Sri Lankan Agriculture Sector, rural rice cultivation farmers have found the best way
of eliminating the highly generating rice straw by direct open field burning due to the high cost of straw
collection and management, transportation cost, storage difficulties, shortage of rural labour, cost
factors of organic fertiliser making, and lack of adequate methods and technology. These practices
have created a number of environmental and social impacts .Increase of heat generation, emission of
greenhouse gases, causes damage to micro organisms in the upper soil layer and reduces microbial
activities, soil deterioration, damages the air quality and negatively impacts on human health. This
experimental project comprised two phases, material development phase and product design phase.
The concept was, management through value addition. The project approach was to come up with an
effective and creative management solution for the highly- generating rice straw and minimise the
current practices by introducing a method to reutilize while coming up with a value addition for the
rural rice farming community. The main aim of this project was to improve rural farmers’ livelihoods by
fostering sustainable rice straw management into a sustainable paradigm. This experimental project
focused on rice straw conversion into value-added material development which was able to create a
sustainable product solution for the market while creating a production opportunity for the rural
community as a secondary income source. The final goal of the project was to economically uplift the
lives of rural farmers by providing an additional income mainly for the non-cultivation period.
