YSU Abayarathna and AL Sandika*
Department of Agricultural Economics, Faculty of Agriculture,
University of Ruhuna, Mapalana, Kamburupitiya
Abstract
This study attempted to investigate the farmers’ knowledge and adoption towards Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) for leafy vegetable cultivation. Bandaragama Divisional Secretariat of Kalutara District was selected as the study area by considering the significant number of target population scattered in the area. A hundred respondents were selected randomly out of 320 leafy vegetable growers in the study area. Data were collected by employing an interview schedule with systematic observation. Farmers were aware of GAPs. Nevertheless, their adoption level was low to moderate level due to practical issues of the implementation of GAPs. There was a positive correlation of knowledge and adoption (r = 0.862, p = 0.01) indicating that a high level of adoption to the GAPs by the knowledgeable farmers. Therefore, appropriate training and knowledge programmes need to be implemented to increase the adoption level. Further, the low level of adoption of GAPs was observed and the reasons might be farmers' negative attitudes toward the implementation of GAPs, negligence and low investment ability to practice GAPs activities. Therefore, relevant private and public institutes have to pay great attention in this regard. And also, it can be suggested that the public and private sectors’ helping hand is required to transform farmers as agripreneurs to run an agribusiness enterprise with maintaining high-quality standards through effective and efficient supply chain management
Keywords:
Adoption, Adoption index, Good Agriculture Practices, Knowledge and Knowledge index Full Text :
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* - Corresponding Author
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