Evaluating Tea Land Suitability and Potential Challenges in the High Grown Region (HGR) of Sri Lanka: A Case Study of Kothmale DS Division, Sri Lanka

Abstract

The tea plantation of Sri Lanka heavily relies on land suitability and proper cultivation practices. Although the High Grown Region (HGR) contributed a high proportion of tea production to the supply chain. This study evaluates the land suitability of tea plantations and potential challenges that hinder sustainable tea production of HGR selecting the GN divisions in the Kothmale DS division. In this study, Analytical Hierarchy Process and descriptive statistics were used as data analysis techniques. Results revealed that 6.33 sq km (45.6%) is very highly suitable, 7.02 sq km (50.7%) is highly suitable, 0.51 sq km (3.6%) is moderately suitable, and 0.11 sq km (0.07%) is unsuitable for tea plantations. However, despite the land suitability, tea production has been gradually declining due to various factors. soil erosion, old seedling tea bushes, the spread of disease, the government's ban on chemical fertilizer and pesticides, the escalation of fertilizer and other input prices due to inflation, inadequate subsidy schemes for replantation, and labor scarcity. To address these challenges this study suggests that the tea smallholding authority and the government should implement subsidy schemes for replantation and introduce proper mechanisms for the use of fertilizer and other inputs in an affordable manner.