A study was conducted to assess the factors affecting the establishment of spice tourism in spice gardens in Sri Lanka, based on farmers' perception including their willingness to start agro-tourism destinations. A sample of 60spice-growing farmers was randomly selected for the study from among those who have registered under the Department of Export Agriculture (DEA) in the Kolonna District Secretariat (DS) division in the Ratnapura district of Sri Lanka. A field survey was conducted using a pre-tested questionnaire. Data collection was conducted during from January to April 2014. Descriptive statistics and Chi Square test were used to analyze the data. Results revealed that the majority of the spicegrowing farmers were males and above 50 years old. They had education up to G.C.E. Ordinary Level (O/L), more than five members in a family, and long term experience in farming. The main reasons for farmers to start spice tourism destinations were better usage of the farm's resources, employment opportunities for the family members, support from other existing tourist location and the interest or being a hobby. Furthermore, middle-age farmers having a significant level of education, large size of farm, higher annual income of the family, high profit from farm, large family size and long term experiences had associations with willingness to start spice tourism destinations. The study concluded that there is a significant number of positive factors for farmers to establish spice tourism in the Kolonna DS division. The government of Sri Lanka could assist this endeavor by giving education and training, improving infrastructure facilities and also motivating and assisting farmers to establish spice tourism destinations in the Kolonna DS division as an extra income generating activity.
Urban Agriculture has an incredible ability to address various burning issues in the urban community such as poverty, malnutrition, unhygienic food stuff and food insecurity which have arisen due to the continuous increase in global urban population. Women can play a key role in urban agriculture due to their role in food management at household level. Nevertheless, at present women participation in urban agriculture is significantly unsatisfactory. In this research, primary data were collected from a sample of 82 respondents in the capital of Sri Lanka, Sri Jayawardanepura Kotte. The results of the study confirm a significant difference in the perceptions on urban agriculture among urban women farmers and urban women non-farmers. The most influential socioeconomic factors affecting the women participation in urban agriculture are; age, education level, number of members in the family and total cultivable area. The time constraints for farming, poor quality of planting inputs and lack of knowledge are the mainly identified constraints that hinder women's contribution in urban agriculture. The results of the study further reveal that the best strategy practiced by the urban women farmers to uplifting the family economy is reinvesting the income or savings of household expenditure due to urban agriculture activities on same agricultural activities. Further, the fitted model on can be used to determine the level of women participation in urban agriculture.
Commercialized agriculture shows better avenues in diversifying the rural livelihoods. Floriculture industry is an avenue to initiate successful small scale enterprises in a conducive environment. This paper explores the aspects in small scale floriculture industry to adapt strategies in rural development through indexing the success of floriculture small enterprises under eight dimensions. Both interviewer administrated questionnaire and in-depth interviews with key respondents were adapted in data collection. Findings indicate that the average entrepreneurial success index of the sample is 0.57, meaning the average success level and 38% were very successful. Diversification (0.78), profitability (0.68), social recognition (0.61) are the dimensions that have the highest mean values and quality of supply or service (0.56), customer satisfaction (0.45) and employee satisfaction (0.27) had lower mean values. Middle age (34%) and women (64%) entrepreneurs' engagement in the industry was high. Time spent on the enterprise and labour usage depends on whether the business is their primary or secondary income activity. Floriculture small scale enterprises have been identified as a good income avenue for middle aged women in rural areas. However, rural development strategies need to address the requirement of how to develop the management skills of rural entrepreneurs as well for the sustainability of their enterprises.
Purpose: It is high time to study the impacts of banning of glyphosate in paddy (rice) cultivation in the country as it is important in many aspects of the economy. The quantity of glyphosate has been in use far exceeds the total of all other pesticides especially for paddy cultivation. The government banned glyphosate in order to save Sri Lanka's agricultural sector especially farmers from the chronic kidney disease (CKD). This unexpected situation has created problems for farmers. This study was conducted to assess the impacts of banning of glyphosate for paddy cultivation in Ratnapura district. Research Method: Ratnapura district was selected as the research area because paddy cultivation has been conducted in many Divisional Secretarial divisions of it. A Sample of 100 paddy farmers was randomly selected and data was collected using a field survey from June to November in 2017. Descriptive statistics and paired t-tests were used to analyze the data. Findings: Results revealed that most of the paddy farmers are male farmers and they are at their middle ages. They have a significant level of education. However, most of them have very small size farm lands and their monthly income is very low. Furthermore, majority of them have a good understanding about positive and negative aspects of glyphosate. Moreover, some farmers are spending much on other herbicides due to unavailability of glyphosate. Hence, there is a significant difference in cost spent for herbicides before and after banning glyphosate. While some farmers are moving away from farming, some farmers are turning to use cultural practices. Originality/ Value: Farmers wish to move away from glyphosate if they have a suitable alternative. But at the moment they are facing problems due to unavailability of alternatives for glyphosate. So that, finding for a better alternative for the glyphosate is a felt need.
Tourism industry is one of sectors that have potential to develop and grow in the next few years in Sri Lanka. According to Tourism Development Strategy of Sri Lanka, tourism industry is expected to be the largest foreign exchange earner by 2024. The principal focus of this study was to explore major factors that affect women’s participation and non-participation in the hospitality industry in Ella DS division Sri Lanka. The study used a deductive approach, and primary data were collected through a self-administered structured questionnaire. Samples were 60 women, consisting of thirty women involved in the hospitality industry and thirty women of the non-hospitality industry, randomly selected. Results were analyzed using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. The results found that the differences in language skills and problem-solving had the most significant effect on women’s participation in hospitality industry. Besides, childcare responsibility and lack of experience were affected women’s involvement in this industry. The results also showed that most of the non-hospitality workers have language barriers (33.3%), lack of knowledge about tourism industry (23.3%), and lack of opportunities to engage in tourism work (13.3%). Based on the results, 53.3% of 30 non-hospitality workers had an idea to be involved in tourism and hospitality industry in the future, while the remaining 46.6% had no idea to be involved.
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