Center for Social Innovation

The Problem

Jayampathy “Chari” Ratwatte, Jr., worked as a software developer for several years in Malabe, Sri Lanka, where his company, Millennium Information Technologies, was surrounded by rice paddy fields. On days when the rains inundated the fields and destroyed the crop, Ratwatte and his colleagues wondered uneasily what the already vulnerable farmers would do to recoup their losses.

What Ratwatte witnessed reflected how precarious life can be in rural Sri Lanka. More than a fifth of the country’s population comprises rice farmers, the majority of them operating two acres or less of land. Government policies that sought to achieve local food security have led to institutionalized poverty and inefficient production. Subsidies and restrictive regulations on land-use and ownership have left farmers with no incentive to break away from subsistence agriculture and take a more market-oriented approach. What’s worse, price volatility in the rice market often leads to their complete economic ruin. As a result, the paddy-cultivating districts report the highest suicide rates in a country that is already plagued by high incidences of people taking their own lives.

In the midst of this bleak scenario, Ratwatte sees seeds of hope. With the country’s nearly three decades of civil conflict now concluded, its highest-potential production areas are once again becoming available to resume production of high-yielding commodity rice to assure local food security. This will free up the small paddy farmers to experiment with niche rices for export to gourmet markets. It is here that Ratwatte sees potential for rural communities to lift themselves out of the poverty that has governed their lives for decades.

Innovative Solution

Many heirloom rices are particularly well suited for growing in areas with the kind of rain variability, water salinity, and reduced solar exposure that tend to characterize many rural rice paddy fields. These varieties, many of which are reddish or pinkish in color, have exceptional flavor and aromatic qualities, and offer special nutritional and health benefits. They also are associated with colorful stories and histories. In short, these low-yield and more expensive rices are ideal for international markets, particularly in the United States and Europe, where consumers are willing to pay a premium for higher-value food items. The total potential market in the U.S. alone consists of more than a billion dollars.

Ratwatte and his childhood friend, and now Stanford colleague, DC Jayasundera have created Rural Returns, a nonprofit organization with a vision. What if Sri Lankan farmers cultivated high-value traditional grains? What if they could distribute them through a non-exploitative reliable supply chain? The organization is helping such farmers connect with small groups that have preserved the seeds, knowledge, and technology to grow traditional grains with sustainable practices. It is connecting them to local and global distributors and stimulating demand for fine rural products on international markets through the creation of an umbrella brand. The increased income resulting from such higher-value goods will lead the way to community-driven development.

Moving farmers from cultivating commercial rice, a practice that was largely imposed on them to serve the nation’s food needs during a period when warfare engulfed the most viable lands, to more gourmet varieties is involving coordination with local organizations that have already been working with the farmers to preserve indigenous traditions and varietals.

Based in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Ratwatte is also working specifically with companies that have expertise in Sri Lanka’s impressive spice and Ceylon tea trade to process and package the products for foreign markets. With Jayasundera operating in California, the two are establishing networks with American and European buyers, distributors, and retailers, as well.

Rural Returns aims to revert the lion’s share of the profits back to the rice farmers themselves, driving up national prices for heirloom varietals. “We want to turn small farmers into business people so that they may become empowered and independent, and no longer be caught in a cycle of dependence on Sri Lanka’s much burdened social welfare system,” says Ratwatte. Other results of this effort will include reduced water usage by as much as 50 percent and a corresponding reduction in methane emissions, a potent greenhouse gas and a significant byproduct of flooding fields for weed control.

Social Innovator

Jayampathy “Chari” Ratwatte, Jr., is from Kandy, a central province in the hill country of Sri Lanka. His concern for the lives of the less fortunate was cultivated early on by his father, who worked as a civil servant and in the citizen sector on social and economic development for many years, and who took his family on numerous travels to the poorest, most underdeveloped parts of the country.

Yet his interest in the trials of rice paddy farmers may well be “something in the blood,” as Ratwatte puts it. After founding Rural Returns, he discovered that his paternal great-grandfather participated in Sri Lanka’s Third Agricultural Conference in 1928, where he emphasized that the paddy land owner “must get a return on his investment.” A maternal uncle still cultivates rice on the family lands and presses government researchers to pay greater attention to crop diversity.

After graduating from Manchester Metropolitan University, UK, with a degree in information systems, Ratwatte served for five years as software developer, leader of the global software support team, and then business analyst for Millennium Information Technologies in Sri Lanka. He enrolled at the Stanford Graduate School of Business with many questions as to what career direction he wanted to follow, and it was there that he joined forces with his childhood friend DC Jayasundera, who was attending the Stanford Civil and Engineering Program, to create Rural Returns.

“I want to achieve real sustainable poverty alleviation that helps the world’s rural poor find for themselves something they very rarely have: choices,” Ratwatte says.

Ratwatte is launching the effort with the help of the Stanford Social Innovation Fellowship.