Abstract:
The role of social networks, which exist in the form of linkages amongst
the individuals in the society and are built up particularly to strengthen
friendships/kinships and/or financial exchange, towards concentration and
specialization of members of a particular ethnic group working for a particular
occupational activity, which is commonly referred to as an "ethnic occupational niche"
(EON), is examined in this paper in the context of paddy farming sector in the Ampara
district of Sri Lanka. The Model's Concentration Index was used in the theoretical
model to estimate the relative strength of EON along with the Contact Availability, the
levels of knowledge and attitudes of farmers to evaluate the role of social networks on
EON. Given the multi-ethnicity of the Ampara district [i.e. Muslims (44.7%); Sinhalese
(35.8%); Tamil (19.5%)], a multi stage sampling procedure was employed to select the
respondents (n ° 60 paddy farming households) and a face-to-face in-depth interview
was carried out with a support of a structured questionnaire during April to June 2010 to
collect the primary data. Further, the secondary data required to specify the empirical
model were obtained from the respective Agrarian Services Centers in Ampara district.
The outcome of analysis, which used the Binary Logistic Regression techniques to
estimate the coefficients of econometric model, shows that the formation of EON has a
positive and significant association with the operations of social networks as well as the
financial availability and scale of operation of the farming system and the Tamil ethnic
group in the Ampara district is likely to be concentrated in activities related to paddy
farming almost twice as their counterpart (i.e. Sinhalese and Muslims).
