Abstract:
‘Ceylon tea’ has a proud history for 150 years in the foreign market, it takes
the position of third foreign income generator in Sri Lanka. Annually, the
amount of tea production in Sri Lanka is 349,308kg. This production is from
both large states and small tea estate holders. According to the Ministry of
Plantation Industry reports in 2018, 76% of small states contributed to national
products. The main objective of this research is to examine the contribution of
small tea estate holder’s development societies to improve the productivity of
the tea industry in Sri Lanka. The researcher has been selected 6 small tea
estate holders in Akurana Divisional Secretarial Division in Kandy. As the
sample of this study was selected from 60 small tea estate holders using a
random sampling method. The methodology of this study based on primary
and secondary data. The primary data were collected through questionnaires
and interviews. Secondary data were collected from the reports of the Tea
Research Institute and Small Tea State Development Authority, websites and
books. Those data were analyzed by using Microsoft Excel. In addition to that
Google Earth, Arc GIS software was used to study the physical nature of this
area through maps. According to the findings, it was confirmed that major
contribution to the tea industry from small tea states and majority of them was
engaging with small tea holders. But, among those societies, only one society
is engaged to build entrepreneurs. And it was found that cultivating a huge
density of tea trees in the small land area was affected by using the correct
technology and proper harvesting at the correct time, by using the new and
correct cultivating method, and re cultivating the tea estate, using fertilizer in
the tea estate. It can be increasing the production of small tea holders the
implementation of these suggestions will improve the production of the tea
industry in Sri Lanka.
