Assessing Human Development of Paddy Farmers Compared to Non-Farmers through Indexing of Health, Assets and Education: A Case Study in Kurunegala District of Sri Lanka

This paper addresses the methodological issues concerning construction of composite indices to compare human development of farming and non-farming communities in Kurunegala District. Three composite indices were developed separately for two communities with respect to Health, Assets and Education. Similar income groups were considered in order to facilitate the comparison. To develop three indices, the Principal Component Analysis was performed separately for each set of indicators, Health, Assets and Education in paddy farmer and non-farmer community. The study revealed that all aggregate index values of paddy farmers were lower than those of non-farmer index values in Kurunagala District. The indices developed in the present study would be useful to assess the level of human development in similar occurrences. Further, it highlights that the values of three indices obtained for paddy farmers are generally lower than those of non-farmers in Kurunegala district. The findings based on the indices can be used by the government and policy makers as baseline information to develop programs to uplift the living standards of farmer community.