Ausnara union of Madhupur upazila under Tangail district was purposively selected as the study area. The farmers who were involved in the cultivation, ripening and preservation of fruits in this union were considered for the study. In all there were 157 farmers, who cultivated banana and pineapple constituted the population for this study. Out of 157 farmers, a total of 94 farmers were selected as the sample for this study. In order to collect the valid and reliable information from the farmers, an interview schedule was carefully designed and pretested keeping the objectives of the study in mind. Simple and direct questions and different scales were used to obtain information. Data were collected by means of interviewing the sampled farmers during 14 February to 12 March 2007. The dependent variable of the study was “use of agrochemicals”. The independent variables of the study were farmers characteristics which include age, level of education, farm size, annual income, agricultural knowledge, area under fruit cultivation, cosmopoliteness, communication media exposure, innovation proneness and awareness about pest hazards.
Level of education: Education of a respondent was measured on the basis of classes he had passed in formal educational institution. For example, if a respondent passed class VII, his education score was 7. If a respondent not knowing, reading or writing was given a score of zero (0) and a score of 0.5 was assigned to these respondent who can sign only.
Farm size: Farm size was measured as the size of his farm (including banana, pineapple and other crops) on which he continued his farming operations during the period of study. The farm size of a respondent was measured by using the following formula: Farm size: A1+ A2 + A3 + ½ (A4 +A5) Where, A1 = Homestead area, A2 = Own land under own cultivation, A3 = Land taken from others on lease, A4 = Land taken from others on borga, A5 = Own land given to others on borga.
Annual income: Annual income of a respondent was measured on the basis of total yearly earning from agricultural products and other sources (service, business, etc.) earned by the respondent himself and other family members. It was expressed in taka. However, a unit score of one (1) was assigned for each one thousand taka of income.
Agricultural knowledge: Agricultural knowledge of a respondent was measured by asking 25 questions related to different aspects of agriculture. It was measured in scores. The total assigned scores of all questions were 50. A score of 2 assigned for each correct answer, 1 for partially correct answer and 0 (zero) for the wrong answer.
Area under fruit cultivation: Area covered by fruit cultivation in the season of collecting the data was considered as the area under fruit cultivation of a respondent.
Cosmopoliteness: A cosmopoliteness score was computed for each respondent to determine the degree of his cosmopoliteness on the basis of his number of visits of different types of places. Each respondent was asked to indicate the number of his visit to 7 different types of places. The frequency of visits weights assigned to these responses was 0, 1, 2 and 3, respectively. Cosmopoliteness score of a respondent was obtained by summing the weights for his visits to the 7 types of places. Thus cosmopoliteness score could range from 0 to 21, while o indicating no cosmopoliteness and 21 indicating high cosmopoliteness.
Awareness about pest hazards: It was measured by the total awareness scores of the respondent towards pest and agro-chemicals. The selected statements were expressed in positive and negative view towards agro-chemicals strategy. The nature of answer of the statements was “Agree” and “Disagree”. Scores given for agree is 1 and disagree for 0.
Measurement of dependent variable Use of agro-chemicals: It was measured by using 4 point rating scale. The respondents were asked to indicate their extent of use of different agro-chemicals. Thus the agro-chemicals use score of a respondent could range from 0 to 45 where 0 indicating no use of agro-chemicals and 45 indicating the highest level of use of agro-chemicals.