3000 per annum, the minimum income necessary to buy the required daily calorie level of 2250 per adult in terms of the price levels in 1989. In order to bring about a gender balance in sharing economic prosperity, the project envisaged to have, out of the total beneficiaries, at least 40% as women beneficiaries. The project was to be closed at end-1997, but the project agreement provided for its continuation for further 20 years by recycling the loan repayments so that the project objectives could be continued to be realised on a long term basis. The Project was a partnership among a number of stakeholders: government, banks, donors, community based organisations and beneficiaries. The project adopted a modified group lending mechanism with credit plus approach for delivering its services to the target beneficiaries, selected under a self-selection process by getting the target individuals to select their own group partners from among people of similar conditions. As such, individuals in elitist groups were kept out from becoming beneficiaries of the project, since they did not have incentives to move along with the poorest of the poor. This system ruled out political, bureaucratic or elitist intervention in the selection process and thereby ensured that only the deserving groups were mobilised to receive project benefits. By using a trained field officer network that functioned as change agents, the self selected beneficiaries were taken through a mandatory savings inculcation scheme and a social mobilisation cum leadership development programme.
In addition to this growth limitation, there is a capacity limitation too affecting the growth in the agricultural sector. Two main inputs used in agriculture, viz., cultivable land and water, are in short supply inhibiting an effective limitation on its growth. Further, agriculture in  7  Ibid, p 56. 8  For instance, in Sri Lanka, slightly more than a half of the national income is earned by people living in three main districts that make up the more lucrative Western Province. See, Economic and Social Statistics of Sri Lanka 2007 Table 41. 9  For instance, Ten-yea Horizon Development Framework 2006-16 has enunciated the vision, inter alia, of transforming traditional subsistence agriculture to a commercially oriented and productive sector. See, Annual Report of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, 2006, p 17. 10  Lanka Business Online, provider of an internet based business and economic analyses, has reported results of a survey on the job preferences of the youth in two remote villages off Anuradhapura where none of the youth have selected agriculture as their future job preference. Visit www.lbo.com. 11  World Bank, Global Economic Prospects 2007, pp 81-3. 12  Sri Lanka’s case in this context is more disappointing with only an annual average growth rate of 1.1% during 1990-2005. See, World Development Report 2007. BIS Review 22/2008  3  certain areas such as the Western Province has now become commercially unviable on account of ever falling yield levels and rising costs of production 13 .