Abstract:
Cashew has the potential to deliver the sources of income and profits for farmers and make
employment opportunities in Sri Lanka. This study was conducted to identify the factors
affecting profitability of cashew growers in Maho divisional secretariat division in
Kurunegala district. The simple random sampling technique was used to select 120 cashew
growers from the above division. The primary data related to profits and socio – economic
characteristics of the cashew growers were collected using a structured questionnaire. Basic
features of the samples were analyzed using frequency statistics and to identify the
association between three ranges of profits and socio – economic characteristics of the
cashew growers, chi – square test was applied. The results of frequency represent that 69.3%
of them are males and 30.7% of them are females while 18.7% of the cashew growers have
other income sources and rest of the 81.3% of them do not have it. Across types of labor,
86.7% of the cashew growers used family labors and only 13.3% of them used hired labors.
The results of chi – square test indicates that three ranges of profits such as, less than Rs
50000/=, between Rs 50000/= to Rs 100000/= and more than Rs10000/- have significantly
associated with gender, availability of other income sources and types of labors. Multiple
linear regression model was employed to investigate the impact of socio – economic
characteristics on profits and its results highlight that gender, types of labor and size of land
significantly and positively influencing the profits while, market price of cashew
significantly and negatively affect the cashew profits in cashew cultivation. In addition to
the statistical analysis, the researcher conducted a face - to - face interview with a selected
group of cashew growers and its results found that, cashew growers were constrained by
several limitations such as severe pest and disease attack, lack of marketing facilities, poor
cashew processing technology and storage facilities.
