Abstract:
A study was carried out to find out the entrepreneurial behaviour of betel farmers in Manmunai
South and Eruvil Pattu Divisional Secretariat division of Batticaloa district. By following
random sampling procedure 80 betel farmers were selected and structured interview schedule
was used to collect the information through personal interview. Data were analyzed by using
SPSS package. The personal and socio-economic characteristics of betel farmers revealed
that majority (86.2%) of betel farmers were male with the family size of 1 – 6 members, more
than half of betel farmers (53.8%) belonged to old age category, 58.9% of betel farmers were
educated up to secondary level of education and 53.8% of the farmers were depended mainly
on betel cultivation. Majority (82.5%) of respondents obtained low income (below Rs. 20,000)
from betel cultivation and 47.5% of them had more than 20 years of experience in betel
cultivation. The study also concluded that 36.2% of the betel farmers belonged to low and
35% of the betel farmers belonged to medium entrepreneurial behaviour category. A positive
and significant relationship was observed between entrepreneurial behaviour of betel farmers
and their personal and socio-economic characteristics such as family size, size of land holding,
total monthly income and education of betel farmer.
