Abstract:
The adoption of climate-smart agri
cultural practices has become essential for miti
gating the challenges posed by climate change in
dry-zone agriculture. However, the effectiveness of
these practices remains uncertain due to low aware
ness and poor adoption rate of such technologies,
especially among small-scale farmers. Therefore,
this study focuses on the adoption of a climate
smart practice- sprinkler irrigation- by small-scale
groundnut and jumbo peanut producers in northern
Sri Lanka and evaluates its effectiveness of sprin
kler irrigation adoption on farm outcomes such as
yield and cultivation cost. Primary data for this
study were collected using stratified random sam
pling technique from 257 small-scale farmers en
gaged in ground nut and Jumbo peanut cultivation
in the Kilinochchi district in northern Sri Lanka.
The dataset includes farm output measures, adop
tion status, and socio-demographic characteristics
of farm households. Among jumbo peanut farm
ers, 124 are adopters of sprinkler irrigation prac
tices, and 50 have not. Among the groundnut farm
ers, 31 are adopters, and 52 are non-adopters. The
impact of sprinkler adoption was estimated using
propensity score matching technique. The results
indicate that sprinkler adopters experience a yield
increase of 178 kg per acre for groundnuts and 30
kg per acre for jumbo peanuts compared to non
adopters. Additionally, the results show that sprin
kler adopters experience a reduction in cultivation
cost by Rs. 45,040 per acre in groundnut cultivation
and by Rs. 59,399 per acre in jumbo peanut culti
vation compared to their counterparts. These find
ings highlight the importance of adopting of sprin
kler irrigation as a viable strategy to mitigate the
climate challenges faced by small-scale groundnut
and jumbo peanut producers.
