Liyanagamage, T.MHettiarachchi, I.C.Sivashankar, P.Mahaliyanaarachchi, R.P.2022-01-312022-01-3120159789550481088http://www.erepo.lib.uwu.ac.lk/bitstream/handle/123456789/8272/85-EAG-Farmers%20perception%20on%20cultivating%20medicinal%20plants%20as%20an%20.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=yMedicinal plants have been used in Sri Lanka for many purposes since early civilization. Recently both national and international demand for ayrvedic medicinal materials has been increased due to increased health awareness. But unfortunately Sri Lankan cultivations presently do not at least provide for the demand for the country itself, this leads to import many plants from countries like India, Pakistan and Dubai. Therefore the propose of this research was to identify farmers perception on medicinal plant cultivation as an agribusiness which could be an important perspective to develop this sector. This research was particularly carried in Pambahinna Agrarian Services Division. In the research questions farmers experience and knowledge on medicinal plant, awareness on markets, potentials and constrains of this industry was discussed. A survey was conducted among randomly selected sample of 111 farmers within 10 GN (gramasewa niladari) divisions and obtain information through an interviewer administrated structured questionnaire. Data analyzing was done using mini tab 14 and MS Excel using descriptive statistics, graphical explanations, and chi square test. Concerning on awareness, many farmers were aware about the value of medicinal materials but they lack information about such agribusinesses so they lack motivation and inspiration Key words: Perception, Medicinal plants, Agribusiness Introduction Common medicines like ginger, garlic, and coriander were used by ancient physicians and used by the people even today. In fact the chemicals used in western drugs were originally extracted from medicinal plants. There is a current trend evolving in many developed and developing countries to move back to old traditions in medicine and especially in beauty culture. The national demand for medicinal plant materials was 3,864,760 kg in 2000 and approximately 1,509,201 kg of this amount were imported to meet the national demand at a cost of about Rs. 13 million (Abeywardana, N and Hettiarachchi, J. K., 2001). Hence great potential exists to organize the cultivation medicinal plants on commercial scale to increase the domestic supply of raw materials (Joseph and Abeysekera, 2004; Gunasena et al., 2004). This paper looks at the farmers’ willingness to cultivate medicinal plants as an agribusiness venture and to find out the potentials and constraints in medicinal plant cultivation.enAgricultureExport AgricultureCrop ProductionIndigenous MedicineMedicinal PlantsOther