Eighteen rural innovators from across Asia and the Pacific take the stage in Colombo

For three days ending today, Sri Lanka is hosting 13 countries at the CIRDAP-HARTI Asia-Pacific Conference on rural development innovations at Colombo's Galle Face Hotel, opened by Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya on 7 October. The star moment of the opening session: awards for 18 rural innovators chosen by an international jury from 187 entries — villagers from Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Iran, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam whose ideas range from digital farming and climate-smart livelihoods to circular-economy and community-enterprise solutions. The conference also launched a publication, 'Seeds of Change,' so the winning approaches can be copied across the region.