The study of the status of organic farmers at Kaluwanchikudy village in the Batticaloa District.

Abstract

Farming without use of synthetic chemicals is commonly referred to as organic farming. It is increasingly popular all cover the world, even in Sri Lanka. The Kaluwanchikudy village is one of the predominant agriculturally productive villages in the Batticaloa district and more than 10% of the farmers have been involved in organic cultivation in their home gardens for more than two years. Each farmer has grown different crops in more than 0.25 acre lands. This study was conducted to assess the socio economic status of organic farmers in Kaluwanchikudy village in the Batticaloa district. The survey covered 40 farmers from Kaluwanchikudy South GN division, which is located in Kaluwanchikudy village. A pre tested questionnaire was used to collect data from organic farmers and collected data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. The socio economic status of respondents investigated in the study include age, sex, family size, educational qualifications, occupational patterns, details of capital and status of income. The majority of the organic farmers (47.5%) were middle aged and 40% hailed from the older age groups. A high percentage of farmers involved in organic production was male. A 32.6% of the farmers had a small family (less than three) while 7.5% of the farmers had large families (more than 7). Families consisting of 4-5 members involved (35%) in the organic production was followed by families that had 3 members. All the farmers used family members for cultivation. Further it was noted that most of the organic farmers (62.5%) received primary education and 65%of the farmers received daily wages. Most of the farmers (68%) in area got subsidies as a source of investment for organic farming. Majority of respondents (37.5%) obtained a profit of the 5500-5000 per month from their cultivation. Organic agriculture is currently practiced in Sri Lanka because of the increasing demand of organically grown products.