Abstract
The Paddy-Cattle Integrated Farming System (PCIFS) is one of the dominant farming systems in the dry zone, Sri Lanka which contributes to the well-being of small-scale farmers. These systems are subjected to high risk and uncertainty uttered by poor productivity and food insecurity related issues. Hence, the study aimed at investigating the impacts of adoption for sustainable agricultural practices on household food security in PCIFS in Anuradhapura district. A survey was employed to gather data from 300 randomly selected paddy-cattle integrated farmers. Descriptive and regression analysis were used to analyze the data. Farming experience, age of respondents, income from milk, awareness on sustainable agricultural practices, training participation and gender were identified as the factors affecting the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices. Further, household income (p<0.1), age, farming experience, and adoption for sustainable agricultural practices significantly (p<0.05) affected on the Food Consumption Score while household size (p<0.1), access to credits, and adoption for sustainable agricultural practices significantly (p<0.05) influenced the Household Food Insecurity Access Score. The study concludes that the adoption for sustainable agricultural practices ensure sustainable and food secured farming systems in the Anuradhapura district. The results suggest the importance of promoting sustainable agricultural practices among the paddy-cattle integrated farmers.
Highlights
The dry zone is characterized by different food production systems including monoculture, integrated, and mixed farming systems which immeasurably contributed to the national economy
Study Area Anuradhapura district was selected for the study on accounts of the higher extent of crop cultivation and livestock rearing among the dry zone districts
The results showed that each additional unit of family labor increases the probability of adopting two or more sustainable agricultural practices by 2.4% (Vine et al 2018)
Summary
The dry zone is characterized by different food production systems including monoculture, integrated, and mixed farming systems which immeasurably contributed to the national economy. The productivity is low mainly due to underutilization of on-farm resources, inappropriate and inefficient national-level policies for production, processing, and marketing of diversified agricultural produce, disparity of agricultural extension and research, which usually adopts the topdown approach without considering the socioeconomic and ecological environment of farmers (Vithanage et al 2013). Dry farmers are resource-poor people living and working in harsh or less productive environments. Farmers in these rural regions have little access to major decision-making processes and new technologies, most have secured tenure through different laws implemented by the successive governments over the years since independence (Kelegama and Chandra 2005)
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