Browsing by Author "Sewwandi, I.M.B."

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    Economics of Selected Domestic Food Crops: a Case Study in Badulla District, 2000-2017
    (Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2014) Sewwandi, I.M.B.
    Agriculture is the principal form of livelihood for substantial fraction (57.3%) of population in Badulla district (Department of Agriculture, Badulla, 2017). In spite of high incidence of poverty in Badulla district, climatic conditions are favorable for cultivating of domestic food crops such as potato, tomato, pole bean, maize and capsicum which are the most leading food crops in the area. Therefore, this study aims to study the economics of selected food crops in the Badulla district and to estimate the resource use efficiency of these crops for the period of 2000-2017. The Cobb- Douglas production function was applied for each crop separately to compare the resource use efficiency. The study results show that 70% of the variance in the dependent variable (gross return (Rs./ac)) can be predicted from the independent variables used in the models. Among the inputs, agro chemicals, hired labor and machinery indicate negative relationship with the gross income for these selected crops. The summation of output elasticities are greater than one (1) in pole bean (Maha season 1.3524 and Yala season 1.1295) which means its production function has increasing returns to scale. This implies that increasing expenditure on resources for pole bean cultivation can help farmers to obtain higher income thqn their expectation. Furthermore, capsicum and tomato in Maha season also have increasing returns to scale. In addition, potato, maize and tomato in Yala season indicate decreasing returns to scale implying inability to obtain the benefits from returns to scale. Moreover, profitability analysis shows that, pole bean in Yala season and tomato in Maha season has the highest increment in the profitability compared with other domestic food crops in Badulla district. Therefore, the study suggests diverting resources from less profitable crops to high profitable crops in order to enhance the resource use efficiency and to improve the living conditions of the farmers in the area. Keywords: Badulla district, Domestic food crops, Input use efficiency, Returns to scale
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    Economics of Selected Domestic Food Crops: A Case Study in Badulla District, 2000-2017
    (Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2019-02) Sewwandi, I.M.B.; Wijetunga, C. S.; Rathnayake, R.M.P.S.
    Agriculture is the principal form of livelihood for substantial fraction (57.3%) of population in Badulla District (Department of Agriculture, Sri Lanka). In spite of high incidence of poverty in Badulla district, climatic conditions are favorable for cultivating of domestic food crops such as potato, tomato, pole bean, maize and capsicum which are the most leading food crops in the area. Therefore, this study aims at comparing the profitability of leading food crops in the Badulla district and to analyse the resource use efficiency of these crops for the period of 2000-2017. The Cobb- Douglas production function was applied for each crop separately to compare the resource use efficiency. The study results show that 70% of the variance in the dependent variable can be predicted from the independent variables used in the models. Among the inputs, agro chemicals, hired labor and machinery indicate negative relationship with the gross income for these selected crops. The summation of output elasticities are greater than one (1) in pole bean (Maha season 1.3524 and Yala season 1.1295) which means its production function has increasing returns to scale. This implies that increasing expenditure on resources for pole bean cultivation can help farmers to obtain higher income than their expectation. Furthermore, capsicum and tomato in Maha season also have increasing returns to scale. In addition, potato, maize and tomato in Yala season indicate decreasing returns to scale implying inability to obtain the benefits from returns to scale. Moreover, profitability analysis shows that, pole bean in Yala season and tomato in Maha season has the highest increment in the profitability compared with other domestic food crops in Badulla district. Therefore, the study suggests diverting resources from less profitable crops to high profitable crops in order to enhance the resource use efficiency and to improve the living conditions of the farmers in the area.
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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.