A STUDY ON VALUE CHAIN ANALYSIS OF RAMBUTAN: STATUS AND PROSPECTS IN GAMPAHA DISTRICT

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.