Abstract:
Among the food consumed by Sri Lankan, rice becomes the main and wheat comes
to the next. Wheat is not cultivated in the countiy causing for drainage in foreign
exchange.The government tries to reduce wheat consumption by increasing the
price and promoting rice cultivation. Now Sri Lanka has become self sufficient in
rice. The aim of this study was to assess the impacts of wheat flour price increment
on rice consumption. One hundred and fifty households representing urban, rural
and estate sectors were interviewed using a structured questionnaire. Research
revealed that per capita wheat flour consumption was high in the estate sector (3.2
kg) than in urban (1.4 kg) and in rural (0.4 kg) sectors. However, average monthly
income had a positive relationship with the consumption in estate sector (0.4744).
Wheat price was high for the respondents (mean values for wilcoxon sign rank test -
1.26, -1.42 and -1.42) in all sectors. Urban and rural households consumed wheat in
order to have a change in their consumption and estate households preferred wheat
because of its easy preparation.
Respondents of all three sectors have reduced wheat and bread consumption with
the price increment of wheat and increased rice consumption. Urban and rural
respondents concerned health factors when consumed wheat flour based food
products. Fifty one percent of the respondents stated that quality of the rice based
food products should be improved. The study concluded that, although consumers
concerned on price of wheat flour, price was not the only factor affected for wheat
consumption, Education, income and health factors also affected the wheat
consumption. But wheat consumption of estate sector still remained higher. People
concerned on rice quality, when they purchased rice. The study recommends that
nutrition promotion campaigns are necessary to promote rice consumption.
Research should be focused on production of convenient, quality rice based
products, and also upgrading the rice/flour milling technology.
