Sarvodaya Development Finance delegation completes agri-innovate immersion in Thailand

A cross-functional leadership team from Sarvodaya Development Finance PLC (SDF) has completed the ‘International Programme on Agri-Innovate: A Value Creation Journey from Soil to Shelf’ at the Faculty of Business Administration, Kasetsart University, Bangkok, delivered in collaboration with the Postgraduate Institute of Management. 

The mid-September programme focused on end-to-end value-chain innovation, from farm productivity and logistics to markets, risk management and consumer insight, aimed at accelerating sustainable growth in Sri Lanka’s agri-MSME segment. 

Branded as ‘Agri-Innovation From Soil to Shelf: The Value Creation Journey’, the mid-September immersion at Kasetsart University took a 10-member SDF cohort through a tightly sequenced mix of classroom and field learning. The cross-functional group—senior managers from sales, operations, product, lending and recoveries, including zonal leaders and heads of Leasing, SME, housing loans, admin and operations and recoveries—was intentionally selected to place experienced, market-facing practitioners at the centre of product design and policy execution.

Across the week, the team completed sessions on value-added product development and branding and undertook guided visits to the One Stop Dairy Farm, the Talaad Thai fresh-produce market, key import/community wholesale and retail hubs and selected farm/manufacturing outlets, culminating in a closing review and presentations.

SDF Chief Executive Officer Nilantha Jayanetti said, “This immersion is not a study tour; it is a strategic investment in capability. As a values-based financial institution, our mission is to turn inclusion into productivity, linking farmers, SMEs and cooperatives to markets, technology and fair finance. The insights our leaders gained at Kasetsart will help us strengthen credit methodologies for agri cash-flows, design products that derisk seasonality and embed better service disciplines across our branch network.”