Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to examine
factors influencing the adoption of agricultural practices
among small holder farmers in Eravur Pattu of the
Batticaloa District. Agriculture is the principal source of
food and livelihood in Sri Lanka. Demographically it is the
broadest economic sector and plays a significant role in
the overall socio-economy of developing countries like Sri
Lanka. A predesigned questionnaire was used to find out
the socioeconomic factors, cultivation practices, extension
services and constraints in crop cultivation. Primary and
Secondary data were collected from the Agrarian service
centres and crop farmers by means of a questionnaire
survey among randomly selected 120 farmers during the
period of April to June 2016 in 3 AI ranges in Eravur Pattu.
The information regarding those factors and issues were
analyzed using SPSS (Version 22) and Microsoft Excel
package. It showed that 84% of the respondents were
male and the majority of respondents (48%) fall between
the age range of 30-40years. 48% are at primary
education level and the size of the farming of 44% is 5
members. The main occupation of 56% is farming. The
study further revealed that 54% of the farmers use
Gravity irrigation (tank). When considering the land
ownership, all farmers (100%) have their own land in the
Maha season. But 58% of farmers have their own land
cultivation in the Yala season. 64% of the farmers have
leased land for doing cultivation in Maha season and 56%
in Yala season. 82 farmers (68%) cultivate paddy in large
scale at both Maha and Yala seasons. At the time of
survey, Brinja, Maize and Groundnut are the crops being
cultivated widely in large scale as well as in their home
garden.
