Abstract:
Majority of the world poor is living in rural areas and agriculture is the main source of their
income and employment. Rural people utilize environmental resources as consumption goods,
input goods, output goods and storage and durable goods. According to Cavendish and Campbell
(2007), environmental resources are the resources that are freely provided by the natural processes.
Farming systems found in the dry zone of Sri Lanka, which utilize natural resources, have been
evolved over years. Due to the paucity of studies published on the relationship between the
extraction of environmental resources and the farming systems in Sri Lanka, this study attempts
to generate empirical information to fi ll up the prevailing information gap. A fi eld survey was
conducted with a multiple stage sampling (120 interviewers) in three surrounding villages situated
in the periphery of “Ritigala” Strict Natural Reserve (SNR), Anuradhapura district. Descriptive
analytical methods were used to analyze the data. Three farming systems were identifi ed through
the study and the community utilizes a vast number of environmental resources, which belongs
to consumption goods, input goods, output goods and storage and durable goods. From the
study, it can be concluded that the value and the quantity of environmental resources used has an
association with the complexity of the farming system and the geographical location of the village.
Value of consumption goods, input goods and durable and storage goods utilized is higher when
the farming system is complex. Contribution of environmental goods to annual household income
shows a positive relationship with the complexity of farming system. Value of environmental
resource used in paddy -vegetable-livestock framing systems recorded the highest value.
