Negotiating Access to Information: The Case of Sri Lankan Cucurbit Farmer

This research paper considers how Sri Lankan export farmers currently interact with agricultural knowledge resources and the factors that affect such access. Access to agricultural knowledge resources at the required time is important for farmers to achieve required growing standards. This is particularly important for farmers in Sri Lanka aiming to sell to export markets. Integration into export value chains can greatly benefit farmers. However in order to access global value chains farmers have to meet required standards. The Department of Agriculture (DOA) of Sri Lanka is currently in the process of implementing Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) standards which must be met by farmers intending to sell to certain export markets. Currently there are several ways in which farmers can access this information; verbally by talking to agricultural extension officers, by calling the 1920 crop advisory service run by the DOA, or by looking at print copies of the GAP standards maintained at the Department. However farmers access this information alongside many other sources, including traditional practices. This research looks at the factors that affect how selected export farmers in Sri Lanka are included in or excluded from agricultural information, and the factors that affect the ways in which they act on the information. Multiple sources of information are considered – both formal and informal. The research considers how different aspects of farmer identity affects the ability of the subjects to access the information. The study also looks at how farmers act when faced with conflicting information from different sources. How do farmers balance conflicting information and the role that trust in information sources plays is considered. This study is part of a larger action-research-based study in which farmers were given mobile phones with information about GAP standards. However, for the purposes of this research, the selected farmers have not been exposed to this intervention.