http://ir.lib.ruh.ac.lk/handle/iruor/7471 2026-05-05T00:03:14Z 2026-05-05T00:03:14Z Madhuranga, D.G.C.S. Wijayawardhane, W.H.S.R. De Silva, N. http://ir.lib.ruh.ac.lk/handle/iruor/9610 2022-11-30T04:41:56Z 2019-10-31T00:00:00Z

Mitigation of Accidents through Occupational Risk Assessment at Workplace: A Case Study in Lanka Sugar Company Private Limited Madhuranga, D.G.C.S.; Wijayawardhane, W.H.S.R.; De Silva, N. One of the most important aspects of any kind of business is occupational health and safety management. A healthy workforce contributes more to the success of a production. The sugar industry is one of the major risk-oriented, agro-based industry in Sri Lanka, though less concern on mitigation practices to minimize the risks of workplace. For this purpose, a questionnaire was prepared and gathered relevant data from workers as quantitative data. Qualitative data were collected from observations through the factory visit. All the observation-based risks and hazards identified were tabulated and the seriousness of risk was calculated, using the risk matrix tool. Using a risk matrix, appropriate mitigation methods were suggested and evaluated. Finally, it was evaluated the progress of mitigation methods by comparing the risk values at identification step and suggestion step. The ultimate objective of this research is to identify the workplace hazards frequently occurred in the Factory Department of Lanka Sugar Company Private Limited, Pelwatte and apply the risk assessment tool to the workplace to suggest appropriate mitigation measures, based on the risk assessment tool. The result of quantitative analysis showed that 54% of workers have lower levels of satisfaction about occupational health and safety conditions in the factory while 60% of them were not satisfied with the available occupational health and safety facilities. The research result showed that working conditions existed in the sugar mills were not at satisfactory level regarding employees’ occupational health and safety. Also in this research, it was clearly identified that workers were not very much keen on safety during their work. Although, 26.5% eye injuries were recorded, but still the welders without safety goggles commonly observed during the factory visit. Even though the company arranged safety awareness programs frequently in higher risk-oriented sections only 56% of the labours had sufficient awareness on occupational health and safety while others suggest the programs should be practical oriented. The study suggests that there should be practical awareness programs on occupational health and safety, sufficient supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) relevant to the job performance and it highly recommended that there must be continued inspections of job performance and usage of safety precautions, for higher employee performance.

2019-10-31T00:00:00Z Silva, K.N.N. Broekel, T. http://ir.lib.ruh.ac.lk/handle/iruor/9595 2024-10-15T03:51:13Z 2016-12-18T00:00:00Z

Factors Constraining Farmers’ Adoption of New Agricultural Technology Programme in Hambantota District in Sri Lanka: Perceptions of Agriculture Extension Officers Silva, K.N.N.; Broekel, T. This paper examines the major factors constraining the adoption of a newly introduced paddy improvement technology programme by farmers in the Hambantota district, as seen from the perspective of Agricultural extension officers. Further, the adoption pattern of those technological programmes by farmers was analyzed. A structured interview schedule was used to collect data from a purposively selected sample of 30 AI officers. Data was analyzed using the principal factor model with iteration and Varimax rotation. Later, the simple linear regression analysis was done to explain any relationship between the adoption levels of farmers in each of the adoption stages. The results showed that a majority of AI officers perceived that only 40-60 per cent of farmers actually adopted the new technology programme. As for the percentage of farmers who proceeded to adopt each stage of the multi-stage process, the majority of the farmers in the community progressed to the awareness stage but only about 50 per cent of farmers continued until the final adoption stage was reached. Among the factors constraining the adoption could be cited a lack of resources, incompatibility and complexity of new technology, socio-economic and cultural constraints. Inadequacies in extension intervention, technical training and information were the main constraints that compromised the information and knowledge network. Moreover, the Yaya 2 programme was hindered by environmental and economic barriers, poor educational competencies of farmers and weak information links with the other actors of the network. Further, the study was unable to predict any significanct relationship between the adoption levels of farmers in each of the adoption stages. These findings suggest that there is an urgent need for researchers, policy makers and administrators of the extension service to consider these constraints seriously so as to overcome them to increase the adoption rate by farmers of the new paddy technology programme in Hambantota.

2016-12-18T00:00:00Z Silva, Nadeeshani K.N. Bandara, Chamodhi S. http://ir.lib.ruh.ac.lk/handle/iruor/9593 2022-11-29T09:15:13Z 2021-06-21T00:00:00Z

Analysis The Potentials and Barriers of Applying Flexible Ridesharing Method in Southern Expressway in Sri Lanka. 2020, with S. Bandara Silva, Nadeeshani K.N.; Bandara, Chamodhi S. The ridesharing arrangement means the transportation of persons in a motor vehicle when such transportation is incidental to the principal purpose of the driver, which is to reach a destination and not to transport person for profit. Internet based ridesharing is the method that allows individuals in need of transportation to access a pool of drivers through a mobile app. The research aim is to find out the potential of applying internet based ridesharing in Sri Lanka under three main objectives; to ascertain the problems of the current transportation system available in Southern Expressway, to analyze the commuters’ perception towards the internet-based ridesharing concept and to examine the potential barriers and constraints of application of internet based the ridesharing system in Southern Expressway. Accordingly, data is collected using three samples representing 30 commuters from each group; the public bus users, personal vehicle users, and arranged hired vehicle users who are frequent commuters of the Southern Expressway. According to the research findings, the majority (90%) of the commuters use Southern Expressway to travel their work place and perceive travel cost as fair cost in contrast to time. The majority of the commuters’ view is the availability of buses in Southern Expressway is not at a satisfactory level. More than 90% said Southern Expressway is much comfortable to travel. The majority of the commuters (85%) willing to use the ridesharing if it is available for Southern Expressway. More than 90% have internet access and therefore the application is not much difficult to implement in Sri Lanka. Even though, people are willing to use ridesharing application, there are some barriers have identified through this study such as gender issues, social status and fear to travel with strangers. Anyhow, research findings have shed green light to implement the ridesharing methods in southern Expressway despite of the prevailing barriers.

2021-06-21T00:00:00Z Manathunga, M. Sliva, K.N.N. http://ir.lib.ruh.ac.lk/handle/iruor/9586 2024-10-28T05:06:36Z 2021-12-30T00:00:00Z

Impact of government’s motorcycle subsidy on job performance of agriculture extension officers in Southern province in Sri Lanka Manathunga, M.; Sliva, K.N.N. Agricultural Extension is an ongoing, non-formal educational process that takes place over a period of time to transfer knowledge to rural farmers. In Sri Lanka, the ratio of farmers to extension officers is 800:1, and therefore, one extension officer has to extensively work with a larger group of farmers with a limited resource capacity. Considering these facts, the Sri Lankan government decided to provide motorcycle subsidy under National Budget Circular 2/2014 to increase the job performance and well-being of the Agricultural Inspectors. Even though the foresaid objective of this subsidy scheme is to improve the performances, there were no follow-up monitoring and evaluation system for this scheme. Therefore, this research is aimed at evaluating the impact of the government’s motorcycle subsidy on job performance and well-being of Agricultural Inspectors in the southern province of Sri Lanka. The sample of 48 Agricultural Inspectors was randomly selected from 70 Agricultural Inspectors in the Galle district. Descriptive and inferential statistics tests

2021-12-30T00:00:00Z