Women Entrepreneurs and Poverty Alleviation in Floriculture of Colombo District in Sri Lanka

Floriculture is one of the highest-growing industries worldwide. It handles a wide range of floricultural outcomes, including fresh flowers, foliage plants, blossoming plants, pot plants, climbers, and grasses, to its customers. At present, it has become a high-income generating agribusiness. The intention of the study is to observe the floricultural influence and its success over poverty alleviation. Further, a wide emphasis is given to examine the motivational factors that led to the decision to startup the agribusiness, the socio-economic status of women floriculturists before and after, and the situation of entrepreneurs in the face of the corona pandemic. The district of Colombo was selected for the present study. Both mixed questionnaires and key informant interviews were adapted for data collection. A random sample of 65 women floriculture entrepreneurs was selected each representing the thirteen DSDs. Mixed content and discourse analyses were used to analyze data. Findings indicate that making money is the critical motivation behind the decision to engage in floriculture. Its contribution to Sri Lanka’s socio-economic development is impressive. The Corona pandemic shows a less negative impact on the studied floriculture entrepreneurs and the results illustrated a weak negative correlation between the two variables, monthly income and the age of the venture. Unlike the clash between work and family, home-based floriculture production enabled the women to remain at home and focus on business and family responsibilities. As a poverty alleviation tool, women's contribution in floriculture is very much practical. Finally, the study has made efforts to bring forward the extent of women empowerment through floriculture, income generation and challenges associated with it. The findings can be utilized for policy developments, implementing institutional frameworks to expand the floriculture industry and empower women whilst eliminating poverty in other areas.