Browsing by Author "Kumari, W.N.S."

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    Attitude of Government Agricultural Officers towards Organic Agriculture in Sri Lanka
    (Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2019) Malkanthi, S.H.P.; Kumari, W.N.S.
    Organic agriculture is a method of farming, which leads to the sustainable agriculture. Before educating farmers on organic agriculture, relevant government agricultural officers should have better knowledge and positive attitude towards it. The main objectives of this study were to study the level of knowledge of agricultural officers on organic agriculture and their attitude towards it. A sample of 120 agriculture officials was randomly selected from Badulla and Ratnapura districts for the study. A field survey was conducted using a pre-tested questionnaire to gather information from the sample, during the period of April 2017 to May 2018. A few descriptive statistical methods and Chisquare test were used to analyze the data. Results revealed that, majority of the agricultural officers are male, educated up to GCE advance level and have certain level of experience on organic agriculture. While, most of them (81.6%) have a general level of knowledge about organic agriculture, a few of them (29.2%) have a better knowledge on it. According to the mean analysis, most of the officers have a positive attitude towards organic agriculture depending on five important factors viz. existing knowledge on organic farming ( 𝑥=3.83), environment protecting (𝑥=4.16), health enhancing (𝑥=4.33), marketing potentials (𝑥=3.59) and social enhancing (𝑥=4.30). According to Chi-square test, there was no association between demographic factors and the attitude of the agricultural officers. However, they have lack of awareness on organic agricultural policies. But, promotion of organic agriculture mainly depends upon the knowledge and skills of agricultural officers. Therefore, motivating them to acquire more knowledge and education on organic agriculture is timely important to establish a sustainable organic agricultural systems in the country.
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    The Contribution of Urban Agriculture for the Urban Household Incomes in Kandy District
    (Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2019-02) Kumari, W.N.S.; Rosairo, H.S.R.
    There is a high potential to apply urban agriculture in Sri Lanka to earn additional income for households as it is gradually popularizing in the country at present. This study aimed to analyze the role of urban agriculture in the urban household incomes. Objectives of the study were to identify the benefits of urban agriculture, to evaluate the perception of urban growers towards urban agriculture, to determine the profitability and contribution of urban agriculture to total household incomes while identifying the constraints faced by urban growers. Kandy district was selected as the study area taking a sample of 100 urban households using the procedure of convenience sampling. A questionnaire was administered to collect the data. Descriptive statistics, Wilcoxon signed-ranked test and gross margin analysis were used as the analytical tools. The findings of the study revealed that, there is a positive perception towards the urban agriculture. Further, it revealed that the highest and the lowest gross margins were observed in Anthurium (Anthurium andraeanum) and Ambarella (Spondias pinnata) respectively. The study also found that urban agriculture has contributed about 1.63% on average to the total household income of the urban sector. Off farm engagements contributed about 85.4% to the household income of the urban sector followed by business and other sources such as transfer payments about 12.05% and 0.87% respectively on average. Inadequate land to cultivate, time constraints, high cost of irrigation and pest attacks were identified as constraints that urban growers faced. However, at present urban agriculture is not practiced well at household level and the study revealed the need to enhance the awareness regarding the potentials and benefits of urban agriculture.
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    Present Organic Farming Policies and Future Needs: A Review Paper
    (Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2019) Malkanthi, S.H.P.; Kumari, W.N.S.
    Organic agriculture plays a very significant role in meeting the food production requirement and sustainable development in Sri Lanka. As a country with full of natural resources, Sri Lanka has a great potential to fulfill the considerable portion of evergrowing market demand for organic products in the world. Sri Lankan communities also have a strong natural inclination towards traditional agriculture. Thus, this research was conducted to study the problems of organic farming, existing policies on organic farming, policy gaps and suggest future policy needs and strategies. Research papers, journal articles, project reports and survey data were used to gather information and they were summarized under each objective. Results revealed that although most of the Sri Lankan farmers have background knowledge about traditional organic farming, by now only a small number of rural farmers practice it in small scales. Thus, as a whole, Sri Lanka is still in the initial stage with regard to organic farming. Also the expected outcomes of organic agriculture are different among the various stakeholders and no adequate solutions to address certain issues in the sector. Even though Sri Lankan government has formulated policies for agriculture, there is no proper policy framework for organic farming in the country and it is still in its initial phase. Thus, the necessary background including policies and programs for the development of modern organic farming in the country targeting the export market is at a poor state and encouragement from the government compared to many other countries is also at a lower level. Therefore, provisions of the institutional support required for organic agriculture in terms of providing scientific basis of organic practices are timely important.