Abstract:
The demand for leafy vegetables has recently increased due to increasing consumer
incomes and the widening of dietary diversity. The highly perishable nature of this
vegetable group has led to the development of peri-urban areas as major production areas.
This has implications on agricultural land use patterns and sources of income for farmers.
Despite the abundance of research on production and marketing of other vegetables in Sri
Lanka, there is a paucity of studies on the economics of leafy vegetable production and
marketing. The objectives of this research were to a) document production practices, and
b) to calculate farm profitability of leafy vegetable farming in a peri-urban production area
of Sri Lanka.
A farm level study was conducted in two villages selected from the Bolgoda Lake periphery
in the Kalutara District. Located in the South of Colombo, the major urban market in the
country, this area is a major supply area of leafy vegetables to the city. A sample of 32
farmers was selected randomly from the two villages for the study. Data on farming
practices; quantities of inputs and outputs, and costs and revenues were collected using a
structured survey schedule. Crop enterprise budgets were computed to compare
profitability among different leafy vegetable crops. According to the results, about two thirds
of farmers practice multiple cropping and concurrently grow two to six crops leading to ten
crop combinations. Average farm size is 0.5 ha. Kan-kun (Ipomea aquatica); mukunuvenna
(Alternanthera sessilis) and gotukola (Centella asiatica) account for 85% of the area under
leafy vegetables. Kan-kun is the most popular mono-cropped leafy vegetable as it is grown
by 22% of farmers. It is also the crop with the highest plot size with mean plot size of 0.14
ha. Results of crop enterprise budget analysis indicate that kan-kun is the crop with the
highest unit profits around LKR 1.5 million/ha/cropping round. Unit profits for gotukola and
mukunuwenna are LKR “000” 942 and 287 per ha per cropping round respectively. This
analysis concludes that cultivation of leafy vegetables is profitable and generates
substantial incomes to small famers in per-urban areas.
