Technology Transfer Efforts towards Tea Manufacturers in Matara District, Sri Lanka
Samaraweera, M. K. and Wijeratne, M.
ABSTRACT
This study was conducted to identify the sources of advisory and extension services received by tea manufacturers, and the level of knowledge and skills acquired by the tea manufacturers in view to planning and implementing extension programs. The Matara, Sri Lanka is confined to five Tea Rangers which include 96 manufacturing factories. Among them, a sample of 55 tea manufacturers was selected for the study following a stratified random sampling technique. A questionnaire survey followed by discussion was employed to collect data during January- June 2019. The findings of the study revealed that tea manufacturers received advisory and extension services from both government and private sector organizations. The majority of the tea manufacturers (83%) received advisory and extension services from Sri Lanka Tea Board while 52% and 48% of them received the services from Tea Small Holdings Development Authority and Tea Research Institute. Further, 77% of the tea manufacturers obtained advisory and extension services from private sector agri-input supply companies. The tea manufacturers obtained higher knowledge on the assessment of green leaf standards (90.2%), tea manufacturing processes (88.2%), postharvest damages (86.3%) and reasonable price calculations (80.4%). They gained a moderate level of knowledge on auction price determination (63.7%), value-added tea production (52.9%) and the importance of factory certifications (51.0%). The level of knowledge obtained by the tea manufacturers on the elements of awareness on training available (24.5%), tea promotion (21.6%) and alternatives to Glyphosate (21.2%) was very low which should be further addressed by appropriate advisory and extension programs. The findings of this study reveal that tea manufacturers in Matara District received a wider range of knowledge and information from both public and private organizations and which was utilized by them towards the production and quality management of made tea in a sustainable manner.
KEYWORDS: Extension services, Knowledge dissemination, Tea manufacturers