AGRO-ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT IN SRI LANKA: POTENTIAL FOR MICRO LEVEL ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY OPTION.

W. G. Somarathne
Agricultural Resource Management division Hector Kobbekaduwa Agrarian Research & Training Institute


Neo-liberal market oriented policy measures have shown hot to be harmful to the agro-environmental management, at lease in the present situation in high and mid country in Sri Lanka (Somaratne, 1998). However, macroeconomic policies alone are not adequate to address the land degradation problem in the upland regions. In this context, the other complementary economic and environmental policy instruments are needed to combat micro-level land degradation-induced environmental damages.

In this analysis, two environmental policy options, replacement of present seedling tea lands in high and midland regions with Vegetatively Propagated (VP) tea and adoption of sloping agricultural Land Technology (SALT) are selected as possible micro-level environmental policy options to mitigate the cost of land degradation. In order to select the viability of environmental policy options, the cost-benefit analysis (CBA) method is employed as an analytical device. These policy options show considerable promise as viable micro level environmental policy options to mitigate land degradation-induced agro-environmental damages in the high and midland regions of Sri Lanka.

Key words - Land degradation; Agro-environmental management; vegetatively propagated (VP) tea; S+loping Agricultural Land Technology (SALT); and Cost-benefit Analysis (CBA)