Ruhuna Agriculture Symposium 2008 – ‘New Frontiers in Agriculture from Farm to Fork’

This major National Symposium was held in celebration of the thirtieth anniversary of the founding of the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Ruhuna. At the opening ceremony, the Minister of Higher Education and the Vice-Chancellors of the Universities of Peradeniya and Ruhuna congratulated the Faculty on its achievements and addressed current issues in Sri Lankan agriculture and education.

Over two days, more than one fifty oral presentations and another fifty poster presentations were given by academics and students from all those Sri Lankan universities where Agriculture is taught. Five invited keynote addresses were delivered, three of them by Durham University academics - a sign of the close cooperation that has been forged between Durham University and the Ruhuna Faculty of Agriculture. The Director of Project Sri Lanka, Professor Joy Palmer Cooper, spoke on ‘Thinking about Food: Food Policy and Human Psychology'; Professor Tim Burt (Geography) gave a lecture on ‘Long-term monitoring of Catchment Systems'; and Professor David E. Cooper (Philosophy) presented a paper on ‘Farming According to "The Laws of Beauty": Aesthetics and Agriculture'.

Among the many persons from Ruhuna's Faculty of Agriculture who participated in the Symposium were several who have visited Durham University -including the former Vice-Chancellor of Ruhuna, Professor Ranjith Senaratne (who was given a special award by the Faculty); the former Dean of Agriculture, Professor K.D.N. Weerasinghe (who was the Symposium Coordinator); and Professor S. Subasinghe (one of the original entry of Ruhuna Agriculture students in 1978).