Peasants and plantations in the Sri Lankan tea sector: Causes of the change in their relative viability

Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics

Volumn 51, Issue 1, 2007, Pages 73-89

  Herath, Deepananda ^a   Weersink, Alfons ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF GUELPH   (Canada)

Author keywords

Farm size distribution; Farm structure; Peasants; Plantations; Sri Lanka; Tea industry

Indexed keywords

CROP PRODUCTION; FARM SIZE; PEASANT AGRICULTURE; PLANTATION; TEA;

ASIA; EURASIA; SOUTH ASIA; SRI LANKA;

EID: 33846340471     PISSN: 1364985X     EISSN: 14678489     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8489.2007.00371.x     Document Type: Article

References (55)

1. Akiyama, T. and Trivedi, P.K. (1987). Vintage production approach to perennial crop supply: An application to tea in major producing countries, Journal of Econometrics 36, 133-161.
2. Athukorala, P. and Huynh, F.C.H. (1987). Export Instability and Growth: Problems and Prospects for the Developing Economies. Croom-Helm, London.
3. Barlow, C. (1997). Growth, structural change and plantation tree crops: the case of rubber, World Development 25, 1589-1607.
4. Barlow, C. and Jayasuriya, S.K. (1986). Stages of development in smallholder tree crop agriculture, Development and Change 17, 635-658.
5. Beckford, G. (1972). Persistent Poverty: Underdevelopment in the Plantation Economies of the Third World. University of the West Indies, Kingston, Jamaica.
6. Berry, A.R. and Cline, W.R. (1979). Agrarian Structure and Productivity in Developing Countries. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD.
7. Bhalla, S. (1991). Sri Lanka, in Krueger, A.O., Schiff, M. and Valdes, A. (eds), The Political Economy of Agricultural Policy, Vol. 2. Asia. John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD, pp. 195-235.
8. Bieber, J. (1997). Plantation Societies in the Era of European Expansion. An Expanding World: The European Impact on World History 1450-1800, Vol. 18. Variorium Press, Aldershot, UK.
9. Binswanger, H.P. and Elgin, M. (1998). Reflections on Land Reform and Farm Size, in Eicher, C.K. and Staatz, J.M. (eds), International Agricultural Development, 3rd edn. John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD, pp. 316-328.
10. Central Bank of Sri Lanka. Annual Report. Various issues, Colombo, Sri Lanka.
11. Chavas, J. (2001). Structural change in agriculture production: economics, technology and policy, in Gardner, B.L. and Rausser, R.C. (eds), Handbook of Agricultural Economics. Elsevier Publishers, Amsterdam, pp. 263-285.
12. Cochrane, W. (1979). The Development of American Agriculture- A Historical Analysis. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, MN.
13. Collier, P. (2002). The future of perennial crops, African Development Review 14, 237-250.
14. Combes, J. and Guillaumont, P. (2002). Commodity price volatility, vulnerability and development, Development Policy Review 20, 25-39.
15. Courtney, P.P. (1980). Plantation Agriculture, 2nd edn. Bell and Hyman, London.
16. Daviron, B. (2002). Small farm production and the standardization of tropical products, Journal of Agrarian Change 2, 162-184.
17. De Silva, S.B.D. (1982). Political Economy of Underdevelopment. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London.
18. Dehn, J., Gilbert, C.L. and Varangis, P. (2005). Agricultural commodity price volatility, in Aizenman, J. and Pinto, B. (eds), Managing Volatility and Crises: A Practitioner's Guide. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 137-185.
19. Deininger, K. and Binswanger, H. (1999). The evolution of the World Bank's land policy: Principles, experience, and future challenges, The World Bank Research Observer 14, 247-276.
20. Department of Census and Statistics (1969 and 1970). Ceylon Year Book. Colombo, Sri Lanka.
21. Diagne, A., Zeller, M. and Sharma, M. (2000). Empirical Measurement of Household's Access to Credit and Credit Constraints in Developing Countries: Methodological Issues and Evidence. FCND Discussion Paper, International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, DC.
22. Eastwood, R., Lipton, M. and Newell, A. (2006). Farm size, in Gardner, B.L. and Rausser, G.C. (eds), Handbook of Agricultural Economics, Vol. 3B. North Holland, Amsterdam. (forthcoming)
23. Fafchamps, M. (1992). Cash crop production, food price volatility, and rural market integration in the Third World, American Journal of Agricultural Economics 92, 90-99.
24. Fernando, N. (1982). Tea smallholdings sector in Sri Lanka, Progress 2, 1-12.
25. Ganewatta, G., Waschik, R., Jayasuriya, S. and Edwards, G. (2005). Moving up the processing ladder in primary products exports: Sri Lanka's 'value-added' tea industry, Agricultural Economics 33, 341-350.
26. Hallam, A. (1991). Economies of size and scale in agriculture: An interpretive review of empirical measurements, Review of Agricultural Economics, 13, 155-172.
27. Hayami, Y. (2002). Family farms and plantations in tropical development, Asian Development Review 19, 67-89.
28. Hayami, Y. and Ruttan, V.W. (1985). Agricultural Development: An International Perspective, 2nd edn. John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD.
29. Huffman, W.E. and Evenson, R.E. (2001). Structural and productivity change in U.S. agriculture, 1950-82, Agricultural Economics 24, 127-147.
30. Khan, M.H. (2001). Agricultural taxation in developing countries: A survey of issues and policy, Agricultural Economics 24, 315-328.
31. Kislev, Y. and Peterson, W. (1996). Economies of scale in agriculture: A reexamination of the evidence, in Antle, J.M. and Sumner, D.A. (eds), The Economics of Agriculture, Vol. 2. Papers in Honor of D. Gale Johnson. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL, pp. 156-170.
32. Lamb, J. (1954). Tea as a crop for small holders in Ceylon, World Crops 6, 206-207.
33. Lipton, M. (2005). From policy aims and small-farm characteristics to farm science needs, in 'The Future of Small Farms. 'Proceedings of the Research Workshop by International Food Policy Research Institute and Imperial College of London, Witherdane Conference Centre, Wye, UK, 26-29 June 2005. Available at URL: http://www.ifpri.org/events/seminars/2005/ 20050626SmallFarms.htm. [accessed 20 July 2006].
34. Liyanage, S. (1993). Partial privatization of plantations and its possible impacts on the performance of the plantation sector in Sri Lanka, in Amerasinghe, Y.R. (ed), Recent Trends in Employment and Productivity in the Plantation Sector of Sri Lanka, International Labor Organization, New Delhi.
35. Majumdar, S. (1973). Problems of quality variation, international substitution, and dynamic adjustments in primary trade: The case of tea, The Developing Economies 15, 293-319.
36. von Massow, M., Weersink, A. and Turvey, C.G. (1992). Dynamics of structural change in the Ontario hog industry, Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics 40, 93-108.
37. Mendis, P. (1992). Human Environment and Spatial Relationships in Agricultural Production: The Case Study of Sri Lanka and Other Tea Producing Countries. Peter Lang Publishing, New York.
38. Peiris, G.H. (1984). Structural change in plantation agriculture in Sri Lanka, in Gooneratne, W. and Wesumperuma, D. (eds), Plantation Agriculture in Sri Lanka. Labor Organization, ARTEP, Bangkok, Thailand, pp. 33-57.
39. Ramanujam, P. (1986). Supply function of perennial crops re-examined: the case of tea, Upanathi: Journal of the Sri Lanka Association of Economists 1, 157-197.
40. Report of the Presidential Commission on the Tea Industry and Trade. (1995). Sessional Paper No II. Department of Government Printing, Colombo, Sri Lanka.
41. Roberts, J. (1989). A micro-economic analysis of tea production using a separable restricted profit function, Journal of Agricultural Economics 40, 185-197.
42. Rote, R. (1986). A Taste of Bitterness: The Political Economy of Tea Plantations in Sri Lanka. Free University Press, Amsterdam.
43. Roumasset, J. (2004). Rural institutions, agricultural development, and pro-poor economic growth, Asian Journal of Agriculture and Development 1, 56-75.
44. Sivapalan, P., Kulasegaram, S. and Kathiravetpillai, A. (eds.) (1986). Handbook on Tea. Tea Research Institute of Sri Lanka, Colombo, Sri Lanka.
45. Snodgrass, D.R. (1966). Ceylon: An Export Economy in Transition. Richard D. Irwin Inc., Illinois.
46. Spitzer, J.J. (1984). Variance estimates in models with the Box-Cox transformation: Implications for estimation and hypothesis testing, The Review of Economics and Statistics 66, 645-652.
47. Sri Lankan Ministry of Plan Implementation. (1980). Report of the Committee Appointed to Study the Constraints and Problems of the Tea Small Holdings Sector. Colombo, Sri Lanka.
48. Sri Lankan Ministry of Plantation Industries. (1994). Report of the Baseline Survey of Tea Small Holdings. Colombo, Sri Lanka.
49. Sri Lankan Ministry of Plantation Industries (2005). Plantation Sector Statistical Pocket Book. Colombo, Sri Lanka.
50. Tweeten, L. (1984). Causes and Consequences of Structural Change in the Farming Industry. National Planning Association, Washington DC.
51. Weerahewa, J. and Goddard, E. (1997). Does the U.K. Importers Discriminate Tea that Originate from Different Countries? Paper presented at Staff Research Series, Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka.
52. Weerahewa, J., Goddard, E. and Perera, G.M.S. (1997). Impact of research on tea production in Sri Lanka, Tropical Agricultural Research 9, 96-107.
53. Weersink, A., Turvey, C.G., Clark, S. and Sarkar, R. (1999). The effect of agricultural policy on farm land values, Land Economics 73, 425-439.
54. Wilson, J.A. (1979). Politics in Sri Lanka 1947-1979. Macmillan Press, London.
55. World Bank. (1997). Sri Lanka's Tea Industry: Succeeding in the Global Market. Discussion Paper No. 368, The World Bank, Washington, DC.