Abstract:
Rambutan is a well-known tropical fruit that is widely grown in Sri Lanka. Gampaha district
is one of the most popular districts for Rambutan production in Sri Lanka. The study was
conducted to investigate the current status of Rambutan production, processing, and value
chain analysis in the Gampaha district after the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic
crisis in the country. For this study, the Biyagama, Dompe, Gampaha, and Attanagalla DS
divisions were selected. Specific objectives include understanding socio-economic
characteristics of people engaged in Rambutan cultivation, evaluating each activity of the
farmer's value chain, identifuing the product made from Rambutan fruits, finding out the
processing industries of Rambutan, and finding out the constraints or problems faced by the
people engaged in Rambutan cultivation. It examined the socio-economic characteristics.
factors contributing to Rambutan production, sources of Rambutan planting materials,
sources of information on Rambutan cultivation among farmers in the study area, fertilizer
application, legal status, marketing strategies, demand, harvesting, labour force, and the
availability of extension services for Rambutan cultivation also processing industries for
Rambutan. The simple random sampling method was used for the primary data collection
among the Rambutan fanners. The study area was chosen based on the existing high number
of Rambutan farmers. In addition, secondary data were used from various sources. Data
were analysed using SPSS software with descriptive statistics, frequencies, and a chi-
squared test. Findings revealed that association between awareness of Rambutan processing
and selected variables.98% of farmers were aware of Rambutan processing. The rest of
them, however, were not. 78% of farmers had processing infrastructure in place. There was a
significant association between years of experience in plantation, farmers' preference to sell.
customers preference, infrastructure to Rambutan process, experience in Rambutan
processing, source of employees, and market availability for processes. It implies that these
factors contributed to increase the awareness of processed Rambutan in the study areas. The
results further suggest a non-significant association between age, gender, family size, main
cultivating plant, legal status for process, and willing to extend the process.
