Capital assets impact on rubber farming in Moneragala in Sri Lanka: Rubber smallholders’ perception

Abstract

Rubber farming in Moneragala district has been considered as an initiative to poverty alleviation and livelihood sustainability. Thus rubber farming was introduced to eight Divisional Secretariat (DS) divisions in the District. Yet, no study was found which addresses the impact of capital assets on rubber farming. Hence, a questionnaire survey was conducted in 2019 to evaluate rubber smallholders’ perception on the impact of capital assets on rubber farming at the household and community level and also to identify the factors affecting the perception. Several were defined to capture changes in the capital asset categories of livelihoods, viz. financial, physical, natural, human, and social assets at both household and community levels. A five-point modified Likert-type scale was used to measure the extent of agreement of variables and weighted values were used to derive the mean score of each item. The mean perception score of respondents was calculated and their key socio-economic characteristics were measured. Perception of the respondents was categorized as, least, moderate and most favourable groups using the confidence interval method. Descriptive methods and Spearman rank correlation analysis were used in data analysis. The indicators used to evaluate the Perceptions on the Impact of Rubber Farming on Capital Assets (PIRFCA) were reliable with Cronbach’s alpha exceeding 0.7. The overall perception level of RSs on the impact of rubber farming on livelihood assets at the household and community level was under the most favourable level. The level of education, age, the experience of farming and rubber farming, rubber farming extent, training programmes attended, contacts with fellow farmers and income from rubber farming were significantly correlated with PIRFCA, while gender and type of job did not have a significant relationship. Accordingly, RSs’ perceived perception explained that rubber farming is the main source of their livelihood developments. Hence, policymakers should critically consider these factors when expanding rubber farming to non-traditional areas in the country as a livelihood strategy.