Abstract:
The government of Sri Lanka has been subsidizing for fertilizer for four decades. While
introducing a new system, it is important to go through farmers’ perception towards it.
However, existing studies have not yet focused on investigation of this grass root level
perceptions. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to analyze farmers’ perception towards
Direct Cash Transfer System (DCTS) for paddy fertilizer. The study has been conducted using
100 paddy farmers in Dimbulagala D.S. division in Polonnaruwa district, Sri Lanka, who have
cultivated their paddy lands both in 2015 yala (material subsidy) season and 2016 yala (DCTS)
seasons. The study includes two phases as “direct questioning” and “perception score”
developing. Direct questioning was done by direct asking, whether DCTS is preferable or not,
which was scored by seven-point Likert scale. Perception score was developed by ten positive
statements scored with same seven-point Likert scale. The statements included areas such as
economic, environmental effects and socio economic effects. One sample Z-test and the
percentage evaluations were used for data analyzing. The result of Z-test for direct perception
indicates no significant difference between the perception towards new and old subsidy
schemes (P=0.055, Z=1.92) while perception score method indicates positive perception
towards new DCTS as (P=.0.000, Z=3.8), as the respondents gave higher scores for the
statements with environmental and social benefits. The results indicate that though, the farmers
do not have high direct perception on DCTS; there is a possibility to change their perception by
the fulfillment of economic factors such as amount of subsidy for the fertilizer, timely
requirement, the market price of fertilizer and the fertilizer availability. As an overall the study
indicates this DCTS provides numerous economic, environmental and social benefits than
material subsidy. The study concludes, based on respondents’ view that the better involvement
of government to make effective procedures to provide cash at the proper time with acceptable
amount and conducting awareness programs and providing of specific places to produce their
own organic fertilizers and developing new business ventures for organic fertilizer production
can improve the direct perception towards DCTS and also increase the use of organic fertilizers
instead of using inorganic fertilizers in paddy sector. This study is of great significance for the
policy makers in particular.
