Dried fish plays an important role in the national economy in multiple ways including minimizing post-harvest losses of fish providing a source of animal protein, enlarging livelihoods, utilizing idling labor into the production process and as a dish, especially for rural poor. Dried fish prices have increased drastically from 2012 to 2019 compared to fish and chicken. Being the key determinant of demand, price is crucial on consumption, dried fish demand and industry performance: increasing prices, decrease the demand, which adversely effects on dried fish industry from 2012 pushing dried fish consumption to third place. Therefore, this study aims to assess the price behavior of selected dried fish varieties and appropriate price forecasting models that could be feed into policy formulation for reasonable prices and price variation during the year. A quantitative approach was adopted gathering national average price data from secondary sources such as Hector Kobbekaduwa Agrarian and Research Institute, Department of Census and Statistics and other relevant institute. Three dried fish varieties which are highly consumed by the populace were selected representing large pelagic-skipjack tuna (Katsuwonus pelamis) and double-spotted queenfish (Scomberoides lysan) and small pelagic-gold-striped sardinella (Sardinella gibbosa). Average monthly retail price data from January 2007 to December 2019 were considered to analysis. Seasonal price variation and price indices were calculated for the three varieties in terms of real market prices. Analysis revealed highest dried fish prices in June and July months, corresponding with south-west monsoon. In contrast, lower prices have been reported during the north-east monsoon for large pelagic, months of January and February. Gold-striped sardinella indicated the highest price index in middle month of the both monsoon seasons. Highest seasonal price indexes for large pelagic varieties are indicated during May-September following the south -west monsoon. The Real Market Price (RMP) of all three dried fish varieties demonstrated a fluctuating pattern with a slight increment throughout the year. The same fluctuating patterns are observed in relation to moving average price, seasonality impact removed price and seasonality around moving average price of each three varieties separately. However, prices of three varieties are strongly correlated (r=0.941<, p=0.00) with each other. The cubic price forecasting model is the best fit model of price forecasting for all the analyzed varieties. Besides, the Quadratic model can be used to predict the price of analyzed large pelagic varieties. The ARIMA analysis revealed that ARIMA (2,1,12) is the best fit model for price forecasting of skipjack tuna while ARIMA (0,1,0) for double spotted queen and gold stripped sardinella forecasting. Having a distinct seasonality impact on dried fish prices, the policies need to be focused on price stabilizing mechanisms to assure a certain and stable performances in the dried fish industry in Sri Lanka ensu...
The use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in Higher Education (HE) and the capabilities of the internet have added value to university teaching and learning. It has also tested the resolve of universities to maximise the benefits of technology integration amidst increasing class sizes, student expectations, cultural diversity and mobility of students. Understanding how students learn and devising appropriate student centred instruction and learning are considered essential to the successful implementation of ICT and allied technologies in teaching and learning. Supported by the findings of an empirical study conducted in an Australian university on student learning orientations and perceptions of course delivery, this article discusses the challenges faced by universities in the integration of technology in teaching for better learning outcomes. The study indicates that technology and learning contexts have a profound influence on student learning orientations of deep or surface learning and students seem to have mixed feelings about the impact of technology in teaching and learning.
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Organizational culture is a key in developing traits and skills in business enterprises. Organizational culture affects employee performance thereby the business success. Amidst many other models, Geert Hofstede introduced a model to evaluate the cultural influence in business organizations over four dimensions, namely power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individuality, and masculinity. Despite many scholars have researched on organizational culture using this four-dimensional approach, an in-depth study has not been carried out in Sri Lanka, particularly on the relationship between power distance and employee performance. Thus, this study attempts to answer the question; how has the level of power distance influenced on employee performance in small-medium agro-based enterprises (SME) and the leadership styles? Agro-based SMEs over four product categories including dairy, tea, plant production (ornamental and timber plant), and agro-input supply in Sabaragamuwa Province, Sri Lanka were considered. Secondary data was obtained through published documents and primary data was gathered through a questionnaire survey, which elicited questions enveloping both quantitative and qualitative data. Simple random sampling technique was employed to draw a sample of 100 operational-level staff from 10 agro-based SMEs obtained from the lists of Sabaragamuwa Chamber of Commerce. Northouse leadership questionnaire was adopted to investigate the leadership styles. Every variable was rated at a five-point Likert scale from 1 to 5 (1-strongly agree and 5-strongly disagree). Democratic leadership style was prominent in all SMEs with moderate employee performance. Encouraged teamwork culture, collaborative problem solving, and high employee engagement, open discussions are noticeable. A modest power distance has been reported by all the entities in a range of 50-68 (PDI dairy = 68.71; PDI tea = 50.52; PDI plant = 66.21; PDI agro-input = 50.24). It indicates a harmonious relationship between superiors and workers. Despite Sri Lanka has been classified as a country with a high-power distance (80) in 2011, the findings reveal a moderate power distance (58.92) in agro-based SMEs in the Sabaragamuwa Province.
Value-added activities, chain structures, and middlemen impact are incomprehensible in the dried fish economy. Processors have a significant impact at the initial stage of the value chain, but little control over value chain management; however vastly monopolized by intermediaries. Yet, the processors receive poor returns compared to other actors in the value chain. Value stream analysis visualizes the value additions incorporated by all the actors and agents in the value chain. Despite the literature states of different returns along the value chain, a comprehensive mapping is needed to assess the contribution by actors and agents over Value Added (VA), Necessary Value Added (NVA) and Non-Necessary Value Added activities (NNVA). This will enable fair and efficient functions in the value chain. The same scenario is common in dried fish value chains in Sri Lanka which is inadequately researched. This study aims to conduct a value stream analysis, middlemen impact assessment, and their relationship for skipjack tuna and smoothbelly sardinella dried fish value chains representing the highest per-capita consumption dried fish varieties in Sri Lanka. Hambantota, Matara, Puttalam, and Gampaha were selected to conduct the study representing the highest dried fish production districts. A quantitative data collection method was adopted employing a pre-tested structured questionnaire. A simple random sampling technique was used to draw the sample from processors, wholesalers and retailers where the sample sizes were 100, ,40, and 40 respectively. Secondary data were collected from reputed published materials. Data were analyzed mainly using descriptive techniques. The number of VA, NV,A and NNVA activities are approximately decreased through the skipjack tuna value chain as processor (VA-10, NVA-01, NNVA-02), wholesaler (VA-2, NVA-1, NNVA-4) and retailer (VA-02, NVA-01, NNVA-01) and for smoothbelly sardinella processor (VA-08, NVA-01, NNVA-02), wholesaler (VA-02, NVA-01, NNVA-02) and retailer (VA-01, NVA-01, NNVA-02) levels. Time spent for each activity is decreased through value chain for both dried fish varieties. The market margins for skipjack tuna and smoothbelly sardinella are 46.64% and 38.19% respectively. Profit margins are increased along the value chain at the processor, wholesaler and retailer levels for skipjack tuna (9.63%, 15.25%, 27.22%) and smoothbelly sardinella (12.53%, 14.23%, 20.98%) respectively. In contrast, profit gain was not fairly distributed along the value chain proportionately contribution to activities and times spent by actors. This recommended an effective mechanism for fair profit sharing for dried fish actors based on their contribution to value addition and time spent on each activity.
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