Rubber Smallholdings in Sri Lanka: Problems and Prospects

Abstract

Plantation agriculture was introduced to Sri Lanka during the British administration in the early 1940s. It was the only successful technical crop introduced during this period as others such as cotton failed to produce successful results. Colonial policy biases strongly favoured large estates, and at the early stages of rubber cultivation, was mainly practiced in large scale due to economies of scale and availability of Indian labour. Rubber was first introduced to the Western Province and thereafter was expanded to Sabaragamuwa, Southern, Uva, and North Western Provinces at different times and to different degrees. As a result of this technical crop, Sri Lanka managed to earn sufficient foreign exchange from raw material export.