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The card for this month shows a tea farm in Sri Lanka, where, in the face of the big international companies, more small farmers are now growing organic tea and other produce.

This change is in no small measure due to the work of a pioneering organic farm in Galaha near Kandy in central Sri Lanka. The farm is Gami Seva Sevana.

A visitor said of his visit to GSS as it is known locally,

“It’s organic farm breathes more than the fresh air and earth of the central Sri Lankan hills, more than its organic husbandry and its teaching aids; it has a vitality which grows out of a vibrant and broad spirituality. Three pillars support the agricultural policy – conservation, recycling and diversity – which will support the fullest human development of its workers and neighbouring rural people…”

This is a traditional tea growing area and Gami Seva Sevana has continued the tradition by training more than 200 small farmers who tend their fields strictly organically. Gami Seva Sevana advises and supports the farmers to plant tea bushes with other crops, use compost as fertilizer and neem as pest control. The farmers are also linked in small cooperatives and can benefit from a joint savings fund.

Gami Seva Sevana means ‘rural service centre’ and it developed from the Sri Lankan Christian Workers’ Fellowship. Its main aim is to promote ecological agriculture. Further education, health and women’s courses are also offered. Appropriate technology is taught, including the use of bio-gas and solar drying. The farm offers a wide variety of training courses, including milk farming, handloom weaving and health work. People of all races and faiths are welcome, both as visitors and as part of the community.

Christians Aware is the UK partner of Gami Seva Sevana and imports the aromatic broken orange pekoe tea produced by the small farmers. The tea is available from the Christians Aware office at 2, Saxby Street, Leicester. LE2 OND. A carton of 200g of tea costs £2.00.

Please send a card of support for pioneering organic farming to Ranjith de Silva at Gami Seva Sevana, Galaha near Kandy, Sri Lanka