‘Toddy tappers’ who collect sap used in everything from palm wine to ice-cream are enjoying a boost to business that has revived the traditional skill and improved their quality of life.

A toddy tapper crosses between palm trees on a rope to collect sap, Kalutara, Sri Lanka. Photograph: Lakruwan Wanniarachchi/AFP/Getty

The palmyra palm tree with its wide fan leaves is a distinctive and common sight across Jaffna, northern Sri Lanka, thriving in the arid conditions.

Kutty, who goes by only one name, is a “toddy tapper”. Climbing the palms with his clay pot, he collects sap from the flower heads at the top of the great trees, which can grow to more than 30 metres (90ft). The sap is fermented to make toddy, an alcoholic drink also known as palm wine.

He shaves the tips off the flowers, tying the pot’s rope handle in place to collect the fluid. It’s meticulous and risky work. Afterwards, he takes the precious juice to the collection centre, just like thousands of other toddy tappers. There are about 11 million palmyra or borassus trees dotting the landscape across the country, but despite its many uses, from making brooms to ice-cream, very few were being utilised – until recently.

With such a small market for toddy, co-operatives would cap the amount they bought and the traditional skills of the tappers were being lost, as the sap brought in little profit. These skills were especially neglected in the Jaffna peninsula during the long civil war, which raged between 1983 and 2009.

A Sri Lankan toddy tapper with his rope to climb the tall palms and clay pot to collect sap. Photograph: Lakruwan Wanniarachchi/AFP/Getty