Awareness and adoption of recommended technologies and management practices by the Tea small holders

Abstract

Tea (Camellia sinensis) is the world famous beverage next to the water and having numerous health and socio economic benefits. Tea, the prominent crop of the plantation sector in Sri Lanka, grows in many parts of the country (Mendis, 1992).Tea growers who have lands less than 10 acres in extent are treated as “Tea small holdings” according the Tea Control act. The cultivation of tea is attractive to small farmers because tea provides work and income throughout the year, requires relatively little investment, and the risk of complete crop failure is small (Annual Report, Tea Small Holdings Development Authority, 2012).As well as the Contribution of small holders to the Sri Lankan tea sector is higher than the plantation sector and it is account for 71.4 % of the national tea output (TSHDA, 2012). Therefore, application of scientific agricultural knowledge and technology adaptation in the small holding tea sector is a vital investment to enhance the productivity and overall performance of the tea industry.

Materials and methodology

Data were collected through a sample survey by giving a structured questionnaire to 8 tea inspector’s (TI) ranges at Badulla administrative district and 150 small holders were randomly selected as the respondents. The questionnaire was mainly formulated to identify the awareness, level of adoption, and factors affecting to the level of adoption. The awareness was measured by percentage of aware respondents. The adoption level was measured by using “Adoption index” and “Confident interval method”. Adoption index was categorized in to three levels as low adoption, medium adoption and high adoption. To identify the factors affecting to level of adoption, regression analysis was conducted and “Adoption on Technology and recommended practiced” has been taken as the dependent variable and data were collected for dependent variable under five categories as Machinery usage, Planting materials, Field practices, Recommended tests and Extension services. For the independent variables data were collected under nine categorical variables as Gender, Age level, Education Level, Source of Income, Experience with Tea land, Land ownership, Land extent, Time spending with tea land and Yield.

Data were analyzed using SPSS Software package and MS-Excel 2010 package. Descriptive statistics were done to analyze the independent variables and by using regression and correlation analysis factors affecting to the level of adoption was analyze and their strength was measured.

Results and Discussion

According to the study only 26 % of respondents have the awareness regarding machinery usage in tea plucking and from them, 48.7 % belongs to year 40 – 50 age group. 79.3 % of the respondents have awareness regarding the improved varieties. According to the study 64.7 % of the respondents have an awareness regarding recommended tests like pH test, starch test which use at the field. Extension services have been accounted under two categories as consulting services and E-consulting services and according to the study 100 % of the respondents have an awareness on consulting services while 36 % of the respondents have awareness on E-consulting services. According to the results of the study it shows that awareness on shade trees, pruning methods and soil conservation methods are respectively 95.3 %, 90.3 % and 93.3 %.

Level of adoption was calculated using Adoption index and confident interval method. Data were collected under five categories and finally overall adoption level for the recommended technology and management practices was calculated