Felicitation to Honour Prof. Padmasiri Wanigasundera for His 25 Years of Unrelented Services

A felicitation ceremony was organized by Sri Lanka Development Journalist Forum (SDJF) to celebrate and pay homage to a wonderful person, Prof. Padmasiri Wanigasundera who has rendered an invaluable 25-year service to Development Communication through the Department of Agricultural Extension at the University of Peradeniya. This was successfully concluded on the 4th of August 2019 at Hotel Suisse Kandy, in the midst of senior academics, veterans and professionals.

As stated by Dr. B.A.D. Samansiri, the Deputy Director, Advisory & Extension at Tea Research Institute, “Professor Padmasiri Wanigasundera has been a pioneer in applying principles of Development Communication, which serves an essential component in a developing country like Sri Lanka in order to bring positive social changes in an ethnically diverse population.”

Prof. Wanigasundera was a good co-worker providing constant support to his counterparts to perform better in what they did. It was notable to observe Prof Wanigasundera’s first and the last PhD students’ presence in the audience who have come to pay their due diligence to a respected teacher.

Delivering the key note speech, Dr. Nandani Herath, a Senior Lecturer at the Open University of Sri Lanka, hailing from the first specialized group of students of Prof Wanigasundera at the University of Peradeniya, wanted to emphasize that Prof. Wanigasundera was not merely a teacher, but a wisdom thinker. “Teachers teach more by what they are than by what they say”, further added Dr. Nandani recalling her remarkable 25 years of teacher-student rapport which has helped her way up to be where she is today.

Prof. Wanigasundera’s service to the Department of Agricultural Extension at the University of Peradeniya was immense. Silently he has contributed a lot to enhance the importance of ‘Development Communication’ to capture voices of marginalized communities in Sri Lanka.

After graduating from University of Peradeniya in 1977, which was the bedrock of Prof. Wanigasundera’s rewarding journey, he joined the Tea Research Institute of Sri Lanka and became the Head of Advisory and Extension Division in 1991. In 1994, with the aim of imparting his vast knowledge and experience to the younger generation, he joined the Faculty of Agriculture of the University of Peradeniya. By the very nature of the subject he could not limit his undertakings to the confines of the University perimeters. He more or less took the subject to the field where the farmers are. He did not do this alone; he took his entire band-wagon of the department to give and receive practical experience by way of videos and films, in which he excelled. This is why Prof Sivayoganathan, his onetime teacher and Head of the Department had to add, that Prof Wanigasundera has not one, but all three qualities: teaching, research and outreach that an extension teacher should possess, a rare combination. This was unreservedly confirmed by Dr Rohan Wijekoon who was the former DG of the Department of Agriculture, when he said that Prof Wanigasundera took the subject to the farmer in an interactive manner, for the first time in the history of extension education in the Faculty.

He did not confine his work merely to the academic sphere, he was working almost round the clock to find means of fostering meaningful dialogues among different sectors in the society, especially with a view to have a shared vision for the country’s future through development communication. Probably this has helped him to contribute more to the field of development communication in Sri Lanka, when he got involved in founding the Sri Lanka Development Journalist Forum (SDJF) in 2010. Since then he functions as the Chairperson and the Mentor of SDJF. This has helped expanding his vistas in the areas of multi-ethnic communities in the country to see opportunities and current realities with a new lens.

Addressing the audience Prof. Padmasiri Wanigadundera, the Chairperson of SDJF pointed out that every citizen is an actor and an object of development. Perhaps, to nurture a true-shared vision among different sectors of our country, techniques of development communication should be applied as top priority. In conclusion, he had asserted his last wish, to create an ‘extension network’ and take ‘development communication’ to the next possible tier!