Factors Influencing Farmers’ Adoption of Protected Agriculture: A Case of Vegetable Farmers in Dry Zone Sri Lanka

The farmers' adoption of Protected Agriculture (PA) in dry zone vegetable cultivation is considerably low in Sri Lanka. However, a few farmers have been practiced PA technologies to minimize negative impacts of climate change on vegetable production in dry part of Sri Lanka. Rain shelters were identified as the main type of PA technology used by dry zone vegetable farmers followed by poly tunnels. Understanding the factors that influencing farmers' adoption to PA could be more useful to popularize the technology in suitable areas while formulating policies to overcome some barriers for adoption. This study analyzed the factors influencing farmers' adoption of PA for vegetable cultivation in dry zone of Sri Lanka. A total of 120 vegetable farmers from 12 Agrarian service centers (ASC) in Anuradhapura and 2 ASC in Matale districts were selected randomly to identify the factors that would be influencing farmers' adoption on PA technologies for vegetable production in the dry zone of the country. Pre tested structured questionnaire were used for the survey in data collection. Binary logistic regression model was applied to identify the factors affecting on adoption to PA by vegetable farmers. Results reveal that farmers age, household size, cultivated extent, access to credit, access to new technologies, access to extension services and primary employment have a significant effect on adoption to PA. These results highlighted that importance of extension services and financial support to promote PA technologies for small scale vegetable farmers in dry zone.