Abstract
Rubber cultivation provides an important source of income for many small farmers in rural areas. In addition, it is a vital source of foreign exchange earnings to the country. However, in the present day rubber is less profitable due to a slump in prices. Cyclical fluctuation in rubber prices is a stylized fact. Therefore, one strategy to keep small farmers in rubber cultivation is to enhance productivity and thereby their income. It is hypothesized that productivity increases can be brought about by improved extension, which creates awareness of recommended technologies and practices in rubber cultivation. With this background, this research studied whether ‘Awareness’ has an impact on productivity and through that on farm income. For this data were collected from a sample of 206 smallholder rubber farmers from Kegalle District, which is one of the major rubber growing districts in Sri Lanka. The Structural Equation Model constructed show that there is a considerable impact by awareness on relevant technologies in improving farmer productivity. But the indirect effect of awareness on farm income through productivity is weak in the sample of data analyzed. Thus, policies geared towards increases in productivity should be coupled with policies related to the marketing of rubber for the small farmers to truly benefit and survive the price shock.
Highlights
Rubber is one of the most important industrial crops cultivated in Sri Lanka contributing to national income as well as improving livelihoods in rural areas
This research was conducted to study the effect of awareness on recommendations on productivity and on income
The researchers hypothesized that awareness is a latent construct and was measured through a series of questions related to three important technologies in rubber cultivation: soil management, tapping and processing
Summary
Rubber is one of the most important industrial crops cultivated in Sri Lanka contributing to national income as well as improving livelihoods in rural areas. It is important that the sector survives the price shock to reap benefits when prices turn around. For this reason, it is important to keep the rubber extents intact without letting it diversify too much into other profitable alternatives. Keeping rubber extents is no easy task because the majority of the extents are held by the smallholder sector who is poor on average and highly price sensitive. Smallholders will retain in rubber cultivation only if they obtain adequate income out of it. Income directly depends on the prices they receive, which is not under their control. The only controllable factor is the output, which critically depends on farm practices
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