Browsing by Author "Gunarathne, S.P."
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Item Association between Tourist Receipts and Economic Growth of Sri Lanka(Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2020) Gunarathne, S.P.The travel and tourism industry is a service-related industry that utilizes many services; transportation, accommodation facilities, food and beverages, and entertainment. Sri Lanka is a country, which has a higher tourist attraction since it shows increasing tourist arrivals over the past years. The research problem of this study was that; is there an association between tourist receipts and economic growth in Sri Lanka? The key objective of the study was to estimate the relationship between tourist receipts and the economic growth of Sri Lanka. The study design was a time series study using secondary data (economic growth rate and tourist receipts) from central bank annual reports and the considered period was from 1977 to 2018. In data analysis, the Pearson Correlation analysis was used to identify the relationship and the Granger Causality test was employed to find the direction of the causality. According to the trend analysis, there was no clear association between two variables since there was a sharp increase in tourist receipts after 2009 while economic growth shows fluctuations over time. There was a significant strong positive relationship between two variables (r = 0.864, p < 0.01). Granger causality test revealed that the causal relationship was unidirectional relationships and the causality goes from tourist receipts to economic growth. In conclusion, there was a positive relationship between tourist receipts and economic growth in Sri Lanka and the association comes from tourist receipts to economic growth. It is because; the tourism industry is a service-related industry, which involved many industries in the service sector. Therefore, when increasing the tourist arrivals and the tourist’s expenses in deferent kinds, it is contributed to the gross domestic product of the country. Hence, it is more important to pay more attention to increasing tourist arrivals and require new planning to move forward to increase the tourist receipts. Keywords: Correlation, Economic growth, Granger causality, Sri Lanka, Tourism receiptsItem Does Oil Price Effect the Gross Domestic Product of Sri Lanka?(Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2020) Gunarathne, S.P.; Perera, L.K.K.J.P.A.D.Energy is one of the critical determinants of economic growth, development, and welfare status of any country in the world. The impact of oil price changes on macroeconomic variables is mostly documented in academia and the degree of impacts are varied from energy-exporting vs. importing countries, dependency on non-renewable energy vs. renewable energy, and small country vs. large country. In this context, this study aimed to explore the impact of oil price changes on economic growth in Sri Lanka by employing time-series econometric techniques. The period covered by the study was 1987 to 2017, which coincides with the open economic policy phase. The unit root test revealed that all the variables become stationary at their first difference form. The Johansen Co-integration test confirmed the existence of a long-run association between variables. The Vector Error Correction Model indicated the negative impact of local oil prices on the Gross Domestic Product in Sri Lanka. The negative impact of oil price changes on economic growth in Sri Lanka was mainly due to the higher dependency on imported energy (fossil fuel), inadequate adoption of energy-efficient technologies in the production system, inadequate focus on alternative or renewable energy sources by the economy, higher dependency on traditional export items, and less responsiveness of supply-side adjustment to price changes or exchange rate depreciation to enhance export. The study emphasized the need to move the economy towards renewable energy sources and the adoption of energy-efficient technologies in the production system to minimize the adverse fallouts of the oil crisis in the world market on the economic development of the country. Keywords: Economic growth, Non-renewable energy, Oil price, Renewable energy, Sri LankaItem Impact of Drought on Households in the Dry Zone of Sri Lank(Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2020) Gunawardana, D.C.; Kuruppuarachchi, K.A.N.L.; Gunarathne, S.P.When the environment is exposed to a period of aridness, it refers to the drought condition, which can alter the continuity of existence that is not able to adapt to certain conditions. Consequently, the objectives of this study were to recognize the social impacts of drought and the perception of farmers on its aspects in the Dry Zone of Sri Lanka. Since drought condition is prevailing severely in North Central Province, 533 farmers were selected randomly from eight divisional secretariat divisions to collect data through self-administrated questionnaire. The tool consisted of questions using a 5-point Likert scale to find the experience of the households regarding the perception of the drought on social aspects. The preliminary task was to find the social impacts of drought worldwide to a certain extent through the subsequent series of literature review, which was performed as a desk review of the research. It was able to excel six social impacts of drought matched with the perspective of Sri Lanka from 18 impacts that were obtained by the review. Health issues, changing the food pattern, scarcity of food, inadequate drinking water, arising conflicts among people for water resources, and migration are the six impacts. A Non-parametric analysis: Sign test with the normal approximation was performed as data were distributed freely. Correspondingly, health issues, changing the food pattern, scarcity of food, inadequate drinking water, and arising conflicts are significantly affected by drought (Z >1.96) but not the migration. Heat and dust-related illnesses, low air quality, low nutritious food, low income, inadequate water supply, limited resources, and distribution of limited resources to a variety of activities are the rationales for the above results; people may not tend migration, as they cannot have any alternative. Early warning systems, awareness of drought resilience methods can be recommended to overcome the negative impacts. Keywords: Drought, Dry zone, North Central Province, Social Impacts, Sri LankaItem Water Management Practices as Adaptation Strategies for Drought: A Case Study in Huruluwewa Irrigation System, North Central Province in Sri Lanka(Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2020) Gunarathne, S.P.; Wickramasinghe, W.M.P.W.Huruluwewa is a major Irrigation System, which is also known as a colonization scheme that facilitates farming activities covering a massive capacity. However, in the drought period, farmers in the left bank of the system face serious issues of inadequate water supply for cultivation due to the geographical setting of the left bank. Therefore, this study was aiming to find the availability of water management practices among farmers as adaptation strategies in dry periods. This was a cross-sectional study done by using an interviewer-administered questionnaire. The study sample consisted of 113 farmers of the left bank and the data were analyzed by using descriptive-analytical methods. According to the result, 78.2% of farmers used adaptation strategies, 19.3% avoided farming in the dry season and 2.5% were in moderate. Among the farmers who were using adaptation strategies, five approaches were found. One is using water from huge wells dug close to the canal and one well is owned by 2-3 farmers mostly. However, it is a successful technique, although they have not taken any permission or advice from the authority when constructing. The others are; making land as moisture protected, cultivating paddy only on a part of the farmland where has higher moisture level, using alternative shortterm crops which require less water, using multiple types of crops as in chena cultivation. Using multiple crops also a wise method, as destroying 1-2 crops may not significantly affect the farmers’ income. Finally, it can be concluded that, the majority of farmers in the Huruluwewa Irrigation Scheme have succeeded in their cultivations using different water management methods as adaptation strategies for drought. Further, the intervention of authorities in constructing huge cultivation wells using precise techniques and promoting multiple crop cultivation can be recommended. Keywords: Adaptation strategies, Cultivation, Drought, Water management practicesItem Why Younger Generation Reluctant to Continue with Farming? A Case Study in Huruluwewa Modern Colonization Scheme(Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2020) Gunarathne, S.P.Modern agricultural colonization schemes were introduced to the Dry Zone of Sri Lanka to achieve the country’s food self-sufficiency. However, less interest in young farmers to continue with farming has become a major issue in these schemes. Therefore, this study attempted to identify the reasons for the young generation in the colonization schemes in Sri Lanka to be less interested in continuing with farming, by testing the Huruluwewa Colonization Scheme in the North Central Province as a case. Primary data were collected through the field survey which covered 155 farm households by employing a random sampling method. Descriptive and inferential analytical methods were used to analyze the collected data. The economic factor analysis indicated that yield and price risk of farming are the critical factors that affect farming income. The specific concern of the farmers in the scheme is drought and thereby the water management issues. Less profitability of farming systems in the scheme was another economic reason for the lack of interest of young in farming. This was mainly due to the absence of innovativeness in farming or less ability of the farmers to think out of the box as most farmers traditionally grow rice the same as the first generation did at the establishment of the scheme. Analyzing the social factors indicated less social recognition of farming is the main reason for the younger generation’s decision to quit farming. The root causes here were the economic and social stagnation or less or slow transformation of these communities for many decades. This has created multiplier effects on the second and third generation of the scheme in terms of societal, for instance, out-migration (both temporary and permanent), social issues in terms of marrying, crimes, and drug addictions. The selected progressive farmer cases revealed that they are innovative farmers who think beyond the traditional farming system in the scheme, with entrepreneurial freedom for farming. Keywords: Colonization Scheme, Farming, Huruluwewa, Less interest, Socio-economic factors