The Role of Tea Small Holdings Development Societies in Development of the Tea Small Holding Sector: Farmers’ Perspectives

Abstract

The Tea Small Holdings Development Societies (TSHDS) were initiated in the year of 1989 and registered under the Act No. 36 of 1991. These tea societies get legal status under the Act No. 21 of 1997. At present, in all tea growing areas TSHDSs have been established under the guidance of Tea Small Holdings Development Authority (THSDA) in Sri Lanka. However, with all the reforms in the tea small holding sector and the institutional intervention, it is not clear whether the objectives of the establishment of Tea Societies have been achieved. Matara district was purposively selected for the study as it contributes more than 13 % of the total tea production of the country. Randomly selected 180 small holders from eight Divisional Secretariat divisions were interviewed using a structured questionnaire, in addition to focus group discussions, direct observations and discussions with relevant stakeholders. Descriptive Statistical tools, the Chi-square test, the't’ test and the Wilcoxon Sign Rank Test were used to analyze and to present data. The study revealed that the average yield of the members of the TSHDS was higher (396 kg/ac) than the average of non-members of TSHDS although the difference is not significant due to large variation within the groups implying that the TSHDS has an impact on improving the productivity of tea small holding sector. Out of the total number of small holders in the sample only 15% were highly satisfied about the TSHDS and another 12% were partially satisfied. The analysis of the Wilcoxon Sign Rank Test results proved that there was no significant improvement of the tea small holdings sector due to implementation of Tea Societies. The study recommends reviewing the functions of the TSHDS and the structure in order to revitalize the TSHDS to face the problems of low productivity, degradation of the quality and other emerging issues in the future.