Socio-economic Context of Rubber Growing in Non-traditional Rubber Cultivating Areas

Abstract

Monaragala is one of the main non-traditional rubber cultivating areas in Sri Lanka, where majority of rubber is cultivated by smallholders. This is an attempt to identify the socio demographic characteristics, rubber cultivation characteristics, and rubber processing characteristic of smallholders in Monaragala district. The data used in this study were gathered through a field survey using a sample of 150 smallholders and the data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The results of the survey showed that the knowledge of smallholders regarding rubber processing was around 70% and the processing standards was at a lower level. Majority of the smallholders are producing Ribbed Smoked Sheet (RSS) or sell raw field latex, which resembles that there is a potential to diversify the processing sector by introducing other processing techniques such as crepe rubber and technically specified rubber. Majority of the sample population which was around 63% were attracted towards high cost group processing centers than processing RSS at household level by using low-cost simple techniques such as using carpets for milling and chimney for smoke drying.