Bringing Tea Technology to the Farmer Doorstep

Participant’s Perception on the Effectiveness of Mobile Crop Clinic Approach in the Low Country Tea Growing Region of Sri Lanka

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-646-3_23How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Mobile Crop Clinics; Farmer’s Perception; Agricultural Extension; Tea Smallholders; Sri Lanka

Abstract

Understanding farmers’ perception on the mobile crop clinic approach is vital for optimizing its implementation and ensuring its contribution to improved livelihood and the productivity in the tea sector. This study investigated farmers’ perception regarding the effectiveness of this extension approach. A sample of 120 participants was selected representing three major tea growing districts of Low Country region in Sri Lanka (i.e. Ratnapura, Galle and Matara). Data were collected during October 2024 to March 2025 by using a pre-tested questionnaire including basic information, level of previous exposure to the tea extension services and the perception towards mobile clinics. As per the results, mobile crop clinics had been perceived as one of the most suitable extension approaches for the tea sector in terms of perceived benefits such as time and cost saving, efficiency, easiness in soil analysis and receiving more than one service successfully at a time. Simultaneously, respondents had perceived inadequacy of time as a limiting factor. While welcoming the joint effort made by public and private institutes in conducting mobile crop clinics, participants preferred keeping this as a toll-free service. Further, the farmers’ perception was significantly correlated with their type of involvement in tea cultivation (full-time or part-time farming) and the level of fulfilling their objectives through the mobile clinic service.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - C. E. Munasinghe
AU  - H. B. Tharangika
AU  - M. A. H. Nishanthi
AU  - K. G. J. P. Mahindapala
AU  - D. Wijewickrama
AU  - J. Rajendran
AU  - P. D. Alwis
AU  - D. Kahawewithana
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/04/15
TI  - Bringing Tea Technology to the Farmer Doorstep
BT  - Proceedings of the International Tea Symposium (InTSym100 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 401
EP  - 415
SN  - 2468-5747
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-646-3_23
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-646-3_23
ID  - Munasinghe2026
ER  -