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Farmers' Attitude Towards Agroforestry in an Area of Gazipur District

M.K. Hasan
Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, Joydebpur, Gazipur-1701.

M.M. Ahmed
Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, Joydebpur, Gazipur-1701.

M.K. Hasan
Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, Joydebpur, Gazipur-1701.

M.G. Miah
Department of Agroforestry and Environment, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University, Gazipur, Bangladesh.

Abstract/ Executive Summary:

The main purpose of this study was, to undersatnd farmers' attitude towards agroforestry in order to make necessary intervention, if any Data were collected from randomly selected 60 farmers from the two selected villages of Kapasia upazila of Gazipur district during January to February, 2005 by interview schedule. The study revealed that, highest proportion (43%) of the respondents had highly favourable attitude towards agroforestry while 25% and 32% had slightly and moderate attitude towards agroforestry. There were significant and positive relationships between attitude towards agroforestry and education and extension contact. However, no relationship was found regarding the age, farm size, family size, annual income, cosmopolite ness and organizational participation.

Keywords: Agroforestry, Farmers' attitude, Annual income

Location: Kapasia upazila of Gazipur district.

Start Date: 00-01-2005

End Date: 00-03-2005

Program Area: Knowledge Management

Non-commodity: Education

Objectives:

To undersatnd the farmers' attitude towards agroforestry.

Methodology:

The study was carried out at Kapasia upazila of Gazipur district during January to March, 2005. Two villages under Durgapur union were purposively selected for farm level data collection. As the sampling frame was not readily available, a total of 60 farmers were selected randomly to collect primary data. A predesign and pre-tested survey schedule was used for this purpose. Direct interview technique was followed. Age of the farmers was measured in terms of years. The farmers were categorized as young (≤ 35 years); middle (36-50 years) and old (> 50 years) on the basis of their age.Education was measured by considering the total number of years of schooling completed by a farmer. The education of the farmers were categorized as illiterate (No schooling), Primary level (Class I to V), Secondary level (Class VI to X) and above secondary' level (Class XI and above). The person who can sign only was categorized under the primary level.Family size was measured in terms of number of family members including farmer himself, wife, children and dependents who live under same roof and share same kitchen were categorized as small (< 5), medium (5-7) and large (>7). The size of the farm was determined by actual land under possession by the respondents and classified as marginal (up to 0.49 ha), small (0.50 to 0.99 ha), medium (1.00 to 2.99 ha) and large (3.00 ha and above). The tentative price of farm output (eg. Crops, dairy, poultry and fruits etc.) as well as income derived from other sources like business, job of any kinds was taken as personal income and was categorized as low ( up to Tk. 35000), medium (Tk. 35000 to 80000) and high (above Tk. 85000). Cosmopolitenes of the respondents were computed on the basis of the respondents' visit to five different places outside of his village. The respondents indicated whether they visited those places frequently, occasionally, rarely or never. Weights assigned to those visits were 3, 2, 1 and 0 respectively. Extension contact of the respondents was computed on the basis of their contact with sources of information. Respondents were asked to determine their extent of contact with those information sources. A 4-point scale such as never, rarely, occasionally and frequently were used to determine the extent of contact. Weights were assigned as 0 for never, 1 for rarely, 2 for occasionally and 3 for frequently. Organizational participation was measured by computing a formula - Organizational participation = Σ (level of participation X duration of participation). Weights were assigned as 0 for participation, 1 for general member, 2 for executive member and 3 for key position like chairperson or secretary. The duration of participant was scored as 1 for one year, 2 for two years and 3 for three years and above. Farmers' attitude towards agroforestry was considered as the dependent variable. Respondent's attitude towards agroforestry was measured by asking his opinion regarding the socio economic aspect of their livelihood due to the contribution of agroforestry system. It was measured on the basis of opinion obtained from the respondents on 10 statements comprising positive and negative following the 'Likert' method with a 5-point scale: 'strongly agree' 'agree', 'undecided' 'disagree' and 'strongly disagree'. A score of 5,4, 3, 2 and 1 was assigned for strongly agreed, agreed, undecided, disagreed and strongly disagreed statements, respectively. Based on the computed scores, the respondents were classified into three categories such as slightly favourable attitude, moderately favourable attitude and highly favourable attitude. In order to explore the relationship between the selected characteristics of the framers and their attitude towards homestead agroforestry, Pearson's Product Moment Co-efficient of correlation (r) was computed.

Source of Information: South Asian J. Agric., 2006, 1(2): 13-16, ISSN 1991-0037

Article Link (Online Journal):

Funding Source:

1.

Budget:

Total Budget (Tk.) :

Achievement/Findings:

The finding revealed that age, family size, farm size, annual income, cosmopolite ness and organizational participation had no significant relationships with the farmers attitude towards agroforestry. Level of education and extension contact were found to have positively significant relationships with the attitude of the farmers. Thus, the null hypotheses concerning these two characteristics (education and extension contact) were rejected. Education is the process of developing capabilities of the individuals so that they can adequately respond to their situation. Time to time extension contact could accelerate better understanding about agroforestry.

Knowledge Management: Journal