Sri Lanka named priority country in U.S. Food for Progress funding for 2026

Colombo, May 5 (Daily Mirror) - The United States Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service has officially designated Sri Lanka as a priority country for its Food for Progress programme in the upcoming 2026 fiscal year.

This inclusion paves the way for Sri Lanka to benefit from a new pool of cooperative agreements, with the U.S. government anticipating the global award of up to USD 226 million, or approximately Rs. 72.24 billion, under this specific initiative to improve agricultural productivity and expand trade.

The Food for Progress programme is designed to modernise and strengthen agricultural sectors in developing nations and is set to disburse these funds through comprehensive five-year projects. Individual project values are expected to range between USD 28 million and USD 35 million, translating to roughly Rs. 8.95 billion to Rs. 11.18 billion each. Sri Lanka joins a select group of priority nations for this programme, sharing the developmental designation with Bangladesh, Bolivia, Ecuador, Morocco, the Philippines, and Thailand.

Alongside the Food for Progress announcement, the Department of Agriculture also outlined the framework for its McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition programmes for the same fiscal year. While Sri Lanka is not listed under this second initiative, the McGovern-Dole programme anticipates awarding up to USD 240 million, or around Rs. 76.72 billion globally. These funds will similarly support five-year projects valued between USD 10 million and USD 35 million in priority nations, including Bolivia, Cambodia, Ecuador, Guinea, Honduras, Liberia, and Timor-Leste.

The formal Notices of Funding Opportunity for both the Food for Progress and McGovern-Dole programmes will be published shortly on the official US government grants portal. This allocation of international food assistance highlights ongoing American efforts to support agricultural development and enhance global food security, with Sri Lanka now well-positioned to secure substantial project investments to bolster its domestic agricultural resilience and economic progress.

Sri Lanka’s inclusion in the 2026 funding cycle builds upon its prior designation as a priority nation in the 2024 Food for Progress initiative. The ongoing strategic agricultural partnership between the two nations was notably highlighted during a visit to Colombo in April 2024 by Alexis Taylor, the United States Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs. During her visit, which included discussions with senior government officials, the United States reaffirmed its commitment to supporting Sri Lanka's agricultural development, focusing on enhancing food security and climate resilience through environmentally friendly practices and improved market linkages.

A primary example of past United States Department of Agriculture involvement in Sri Lanka is the successful implementation of the Market-Oriented Dairy Project, valued at USD 27.5 million, or roughly Rs. 8.79 billion. This extensive initiative significantly improved milk productivity for over 15,000 local dairy farmers, with many reporting a doubling in production, while also delivering vital training on climate adaptation. Furthermore, since 2018, the USDA’s McGovern-Dole programme has played a critical role in local food security by providing daily meals to nearly 100,000 primary schoolchildren. The success of this earlier programme triggered a subsequent USD 32.5 million, or Rs. 10.38 billion, project expansion aimed at doubling the reach to almost 200,000 students across eight districts under the national school meal programme.