Abstract:
Rubber farming in Moneragala district has been considered as an initiative to poverty
alleviation and livelihood sustainability. Thus rubber farming was introduced to eight
Divisional Secretariat (DS) divisions in the District. Yet, no study was found which
addresses the impact of capital assets on rubber farming. Hence, a questionnaire
survey was conducted in 2019 to evaluate rubber smallholders’ perception on the
impact of capital assets on rubber farming at the household and community level and
also to identify the factors affecting the perception. Several were defined to capture
changes in the capital asset categories of livelihoods, viz. financial, physical, natural,
human, and social assets at both household and community levels. A five-point
modified Likert-type scale was used to measure the extent of agreement of variables
and weighted values were used to derive the mean score of each item. The mean
perception score of respondents was calculated and their key socio-economic
characteristics were measured. Perception of the respondents was categorized as,
least, moderate and most favourable groups using the confidence interval method.
Descriptive methods and Spearman rank correlation analysis were used in data
analysis. The indicators used to evaluate the Perceptions on the Impact of Rubber
Farming on Capital Assets (PIRFCA) were reliable with Cronbach’s alpha exceeding
0.7. The overall perception level of RSs on the impact of rubber farming on livelihood
assets at the household and community level was under the most favourable level. The
level of education, age, the experience of farming and rubber farming, rubber farming
extent, training programmes attended, contacts with fellow farmers and income from
rubber farming were significantly correlated with PIRFCA, while gender and type of
job did not have a significant relationship. Accordingly, RSs’ perceived perception
explained that rubber farming is the main source of their livelihood developments.
Hence, policymakers should critically consider these factors when expanding rubber
farming to non-traditional areas in the country as a livelihood strategy
