Abstract:
Organic products are popular and experiencing a rapid growth over the past two decades.
Although government efforts in promoting organic agriculture with favourable policy changes
and promotions, a minority of farmers still involve in organic agriculture. Previous studies
showed that, farmers have adopted different agricultural practices due to various reasons. But
very few studies focused on understanding local farmer motivating factors related to organic
agricultural practices. Therefore study focused on to identify different factors that affect the
adoption of organic agriculture. The study was conducted as a cross-sectional study with a pre tested interview schedule administered to organic and conventional spice farmers. A sample of
sixty farmers (thirty for each category) was randomly selected from Udunuwara, Yatinuwara
and Harispattuwa Divisional Secretariats in the Kandy District. In data analysis percentages,
frequencies and means were used as descriptive statistics while T-tests, correlation and
binomial logistic regression were used as inferential statistics. Results showed that most of the
organic farmers were older part-time farmers who were having more interactions with local
organizations compared to conventional farmers. Perceived health benefits of organic
agriculture were the mostly stated motive factor of organic farmers while conventional farmers
had strong economic motivations. Further, conventional and organic farmers had significantly
different (p<0.05) attitudes towards their respective agricultural practice. Policymakers should
consider non-economic aspects of farmer motivation such as health and environmental
concerns, explored in this study to formulate policies addressing key attributes of farmers when
encouraging them to convert to organic farming. Furthermore, the results of this study can also
be utilized by extension services to create better extension programs to promote organic
farming effectively and efficiently.
