Browsing by Author "Samaraweera, W.G.R.L."

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    The Evidence of Agricultural Self-Employment Decisions Making in Sri Lanka
    (Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2021) Bogodage, J.N.; Dharmadasa, R.A.P.I.S.; Senaratne, A.; Samaraweera, W.G.R.L.
    Development of self-employment in agriculture sector is one of the critical pathway to achieve sustainable economic growth and alleviate poverty in Sri Lanka. Distinguishing the importance, Sri Lankan government‟s policy framework is designed to supports the domestic agricultural sector especially, agricultural self-employment. However, the employed worker population in non- agriculture sector has surpassed the agriculture sector by absorbing the agriculture workers to both industry and service sectors. In consequence, there is a potential for these policies promoting agricultural self-employment might fail to generate the expected results. Therefore, this study was designed to determine factors influencing choice of occupation in agriculture self-employment. A sample of 9,531 self-employed individuals were isolated from the nationally representative, Household Income Expenditure Survey in 2016. A multinomial logit model was estimated to analyze different occupational choices of agriculture self-employment. Results revealed that males are highly tend to be self-employed in farming and fishery sector while females are in animal husbandry and value-added food processing. Well-educated individuals are less inclined to choose agricultural self- employment with the aim of engage in high paid-employments in both agriculture and non- agriculture sector. In addition, increasing members of household inversely influenced on choice of agricultural self-employment. Married women are more likely to be self-employed in value-added food processing. With the existing higher uncertainty, relative investment of owned tenure on agriculture self-employment is very low. However, except farming sector, land holdings showed strong negative relationship with self-employment in fishery, animal husbandry and value-added food processing. In addition, as household expenditure increases, the probability of choosing agriculture self-employment reduces. Moreover, being in a low financial position & inability to obtain required credit facilities are the main hurdles to be faced in land acquisition for the agriculture self- employment. Therefore, the study suggests that the priority given for the agricultural self- employment when implementing national policies is limited despite the overarching considerations and should consider enhancing access to agricultural lands, rehabilitation of left alone agricultural lands and facilitating credit especially to the new labor market entrants. Keywords: Agricultural self-employment; Choice of occupation; Determinants of agriculture self- employment; Multinomial logit model
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    Land Access, Livelihood Diversification and Migration of Rural Youth in Sri Lanka
    (Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2014) Samaraweera, W.G.R.L.
    Selecting an appropriate livelihood strategy is a critical turning point of any youth's life. Until recent years, most prominent livelihood among youth was agriculture, which was inherited from their family. Rural livelihoods have been diversified due to many factors causing a social change, and it has led the rural youth to be migrated. This study was designed to assess whether, the land access influences the choice of agricultural livelihood among rural youth and rural youth's choice of migration. A national representative sample of rural youth was isolated from the Household Income and Expenditure Survey (2016) data, compiled by Department of Census and Statistics. A multinomial logit model under random utility framework was estimated to assess the livelihood diversification. A probit model of migration outcome was employed to assess the rural youth's choice of migration with regards to land access. The multinomial logit model revealed that land access is strongly associated with the agricultural livelihood choice and urban salaried employment choice of rural youth. Being a female youth makes the choice of livelihood less likely to be agriculture. Education level of youth acts as an upward driver in choosing urban salaried employment while tendency for educated youth to choose agriculture decreases with education. Probit model of migration revealed that propensity to migrate reduces with land accessibility. Therefore, land access is a crucial factor for rural youth to choose agricultural livelihoods. Land access is also a crucial factor for rural youth not to be migrated. Thus, the policies required to be reformed to increase the land access to rural youth in Sri Lanka to address the adverse effects of this social change. Key words: employment choice of rural youth, farmland availability, non farm employment, sustainable agriculture
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    Multidimensional Poverty in the Estate Sector of Badulla District in Sri Lanka
    (Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2019-02) Fernando, P.M.M.; Kumara, P.H.T.; Dharmadasa, R.A.P.I.S.; Samaraweera, W.G.R.L.
    According to the official poverty estimates of the Department of Census and Statistics, poverty in the estate sector of Sri Lanka has gradually reduced in monetary terms over the past years. However, in measuring poverty, monetary approach itself does not contemplate the extent of simultaneous deprivations suffered by individuals under multiple dimensions which are important for reduction of poverty. Therefore, this study aimed at estimating the level of multiple deprivation among the estate poor, identifying the dimensions that people are mostly deprived of and suggesting policies for alleviating poverty which leads to sustainable development of the country. To understand poverty in multidimensional nature, data from a convenience sample of 200 households in the estate sector of Badulla district was collected and analysed using Multidimensional Poverty Index introduced by Alkire and Santos (2010). The study reveals that Multidimensional Poverty Index for the estate sector of Badulla district is 0.12 and 34% of the population were multidimensionally poor along with 37.7% on average intensity of deprivation which are significantly higher than the estimated monetary poverty figures. Poor living standards and insufficient nutrition of estate sector people contributed significantly for multidimensional poverty in the study area. Sanitation which is a necessity of an individual was found contributing 4.8% which revealed their severity in poverty. However, the attendance of school by school aged children was satisfactory compared to the completed years of schooling by the rest of the household members. As plantation community is constricted within the estate areas, they encounter numerous deprivations and income is not always an ideal measure to determine the depth of poverty. Thus, it is required to reduce nutritional, sanitary, housing and household utility deprivations to reduce multidimensional poverty among the estate population in the Badulla district.
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    Valuation of Glyphosate in Tea Sector of Uva Region in Sri Lanka
    (Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2018) Samaraweera, W.G.R.L.; Fernando, P.M.M.; Sewwandi, I.M.B.; Kariyawasam, L.G.T.; Senarathna, H.T.A.B.
    Banning of Glyphosate without providing any alternative, parallel chemical method to manage the weeds, has left the tea industry vulnerable for increasing cost of production (COP). This is because planters have to mainly depend on manual weeding which incurs a high cost. The aim of this study is to find out the value of Glyphosate per square meter (m2) taking the area of Thelbedda and Ury estates in Uva region into account and apply it to determine the total value of Glyphosate for the entire tea sector in Uva region of Sri Lanka. We applied 'Benefit Transfer' as the valuation technique and evaluated Ury and Thelbedda estates in Uva region. We obtained annual cost of manual weed management and annual yield in the years 2016 & 2017. For the valuation, we assumed that the effects from climatic factors on weed management and yield is negligible, wage rate as well as weed growth rate is constant and effect of Glyphosate lasts till the end of the year 2015. Value of Glyphosate was determined by deducting the cost of manual weeding for the year 2016 from 2017. Values of Glyphosate per square meter of Thelbedda and Ury estates are Rs. 0.95 and Rs. 1.95 respectively. The value of Glyphosate for the entire tea sector of Uva region was determined by multiplying the average by the extent of tea sector (281,330,000 m2) in the Uva region and that is Rs. 407,726,059.90. Accordingly, the value of Glyphosate calculated depicts the worth of Glyphosate to the entire tea sector in Uva region under the valuation method of benefit transfer. The manual weeding cost has a significant increment in the following two years since the banning of Glyphosate application in 2015. The yield too has shown a drastic decline. Since an alternative herbicide has not yet been introduced the demand for labour has increased for manual weeding and so the cost. So Glyphosate is a crucial factor that affects the tea industry in terms of profit.