Introducing Eco-Friendly Technologies to Reduce Chemical Fertilizer Usage in Paddy Farming in Sri Lanka

Abstract

The study explores the probability of substituting Chemical Fertilizer (CF) with Eco-Friendly Technologies (EFTs) which are to be introduced to the Sri Lankan paddy farmers in the form of a product package of Biochar (BC) and Bio Fertilizer (BF). The main focus was to elaborate whether the benefits of EFTs have overweighed the costs of EFTs and to identify the policy tools, incentives and key instruments, by employing a semi structured questionnaire based survey carried out in Anuradhapura and Kurunegala for a sample of 100 farmers. The perception analysis revealed that EFTs are beneficial over the CFs and if proper governance is established by the regulatory bodies EFTs are much preferred by the farmers over CFs.