Certification of Organic Products by Farmers in Sri Lanka
Keywords:
organic agriculture, organic farming, organic certification, organic products, Sri LankaAbstract
Similar to some other countries, the lack of proper certification systems creates significant problems in identifying real organic products in Sri Lanka as well. Therefore, the present study aims to investigate the current situation of organic certifications used by farmers in two selected districts of the country which are having high potentials for organic agriculture. Initially, a literature review was conducted to find out the present situation of organic product certification in the world and in Sri Lanka. This was followed by a field survey conducted from March 2017 to December 2018 using 300 randomly selected farmers. The data were analyzed by descriptive statistics. According to the literature review findings, some developed countries such as USA, Canada, New Zealand and Australia etc. carry out organic certifications in a well-organized manner. Meanwhile, seven international organic certification agencies are operating mainly for export products in Sri Lanka. However, currently only four certification systems are functioning for the local market products. As per the field survey findings, out of four, only two certification systems are used in these areas. While few farmers (2.3%) use the “Participatory Guarantee System” (PGS) and very few farmers (1.3%) use “SriCert” certification. However,
most farmers (49.7%) are willing to shift towards organic agriculture and adopt organic certifications in future. Challenges such as the doubt about a reduction in harvest and income from organic farming, lack of market opportunities for organic products, low level of awareness of certification process, high cost and complexity of certification process are acting as barriers. Therefore, the development of user-friendly certification procedures and awareness programs for the potential farmers and initiating marketing facilities for certified organic products will motivate farmers towards the certification of organic products.
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