Managers’ Perception on Crop Productivity and Training Needs of State-Managed and Regional Plantation Company Tea Estates in Mid-Country, Sri Lanka

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-646-3_22How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Training and awareness; Crop productivity; State-managed estates; Regional Plantation Company; Estate managers

Abstract

The tea estate sector in Sri Lanka plays a vital role in sustaining national tea production, while training and awareness programmes are essential for enhancing both the quality and quantity of tea production and for improving the livelihoods of employees. This study examines the perception of estate managers on crop productivity and training needs of state-managed and Regional Plantation Company estates in the Mid-country. A descriptive cross-sectional survey was conducted among 30 estates, representing both categories, using a structured questionnaire. Data were analyzed through descriptive statistics and the Mann–Whitney U test. Results indicated that the majority of estate managers in both categories were educated up to or above the diploma level and had more than 15 years of experience in tea plantation management. Inadequate training and awareness of staff and workers (75%) was perceived as a major contributor to lower productivity. Significant differences were observed between state-managed and Regional Plantation Company estates in terms of investment in crop development and social development of human capital. Findings further revealed that most estates in Mid-country conduct training programmes every three or six months. Estate managers emphasized the need for training in cultivation practices and productivity improvement as the priority area. The study highlights the importance of organizing tailor-made programmes integrated with need assessments and pre- and post-assessments. Further, the study concludes the necessity to initiate training and awareness projects as collective programmes of the Human Resource departments of estates and training and awareness agents in the tea sector.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - K. R. W. B. Kahandawa
AU  - K. G. M. J. W. Gunapala
AU  - H. E. M. U. C. S. Ekanayake
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/04/15
TI  - Managers’ Perception on Crop Productivity and Training Needs of State-Managed and Regional Plantation Company Tea Estates in Mid-Country, Sri Lanka
BT  - Proceedings of the International Tea Symposium (InTSym100 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 386
EP  - 400
SN  - 2468-5747
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-646-3_22
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-646-3_22
ID  - Kahandawa2026
ER  -