Factors influencing the replanting of tea small holdings in Sri Lanka: A case study in the Matara district

Abstract

Tea is one of the main plantation crops in Sri Lanka. However, the replanting rate is much lower than the expected level. This study mainly focuses to identify the reasons behind the low interest for replanting of unproductive tea lands of tea small holders (TSHs). Six hundred tea small holders were randomly selected from six Divisional Secretariats in the Matara district and were interviewed using the structured questionnaire. The Descriptive Statistical Tools were used to present the data while Chi-square test was used to find the associations between demographic variables and the interest of replanting. This study revealed that about 75% of the TSHs are mainly depending on tea cultivation. More than 80% of the TSHs are aware about the subsidy scheme and the procedures to follow for the subsidy while about 70% of the TSHs were aware about the economic age of the tea bush and the requirement of renewal after 20 years. However, 88% of the TSHs plantations are more than 20 years old and 54 % of them were not willing to replant due to rehabilitation period is too long and 57 % of TSHs idea were subsidy amount is not enough. Tea small holders (17%) have replanted a part of their land using own money as they are not willing to keep the land a long period for soil rehabilitation. The Chi-square analysis proved that there is a significant association between the land size and willing to replant. The tea small holders having other reliable income sources such as government jobs were showed higher rate of replanting. Meanwhile 78 % of them were proposed to increase the subsidy rate while 67 % of TSHs prefer to have an attractive loan scheme to develop their tea lands. However 71 % of them asked to increase the awareness about the technology of replanting and 62 % of TSHs prefer to have alternate economical crops for soil rehabilitation. It can be concluded that out of the several reasons for low rate of replanting, this study proposed to review the tea replanting process to introduce alternate crops and to reduce the rehabilitation period while introducing special loan scheme and strengthening extension system to attract the TSHs to do the tea replanting. Key words: Tea small holders, Tea small holdings, Rehabilitation, Replanting