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Farmers’ Attitude Towards E-agriculture in Bangladesh

Md. Rafiquel Islam
Department of Agricultural Extension and Information System, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Sheikh Mohammed Mamur Rashid*
Department of Agricultural Extension and Information System, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Abstract/ Executive Summary:

e-Agriculture is being the utmost desire for the sustainable development world over. The research was designed to assess farmers? attitude towards e-Agriculture. The methodology of this study is an integration of quantitative and qualitative methods based on data collection in Bhatbour Block of Dhighi union under Sadar Upazila of Minikganj District. Data were collected from 133 e-Agriculture users. Descriptive statistics, multiple regression (B) were used for analysis. 73.7 percent of the respondents had moderately favorable attitude, 06 percent had low favorable attitude and 20.3 percent had high favorable attitude towards e-Agriculture. Variables such as effective farm size, annual household income, farming experience, participation in training, knowledge on e-Agriculture, organizational participation and cosmopoliteness had significant contribution on farmers' attitude towards e-Agriculture and these variables contributed total 61.9 percent in farmers' attitude towards e-Agriculture. Hence, it is high time prepare the farmers to use these e-Agriculture tools for their wellbeing through proper educational activities and to popularize this service, government should implement integrated marketing communication using the popular print and electronic media so that more and more people get aware of this service.

Keywords: e-Agriculture, Attitude; Farm communication

Location:

Start Date:

End Date:

Program Area: Knowledge Management

Non-commodity: Performance

Objectives:

This researcher has not come across any local literature that has made any qualitative attempt to measure the attitude of e-Agriculture among the farmers. So, this literature has been attempted in this Green field segment and perhaps the very begining of its kind in Bangladeshi context.

Methodology:

Data Collection and Sampling Methodology: The researcher applied purposive sampling technique to determine the location form where the data were collected.The study was conducted at the Bhatbour block of Dighi union under Manikganj Sadar Upazila, Manikganj (One of the major districts of Bangladesh) where the government of Bangladesh has been implementing a numbers of e-Agriculture related development projects with the help of foreign aids through Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE).For the purpose of this study, the farmers (within this block) those who used e-Agriculture were considered as the study group and the farmers those who did not use such (within this block) were considered as the control group. According to the DAE database, in this area, approximately 1148 farmers used e-Agricultural facilities. To determine the sample size out of these 1148 study group farmers, the researcher used Yamane's (1967) formula. Measurement of farmers’ attitude towards e-Agriculture: Attitude of farmers towards e-Agriculture was considered as dependent variable of the study. After through consultation with the extension experts and review of literature 29 statements were selected to measure the attitude of the respondents towards e-Agriculture. The respondents were asked to give their attitude regarding 29 statements related to e-Agriculture. Among the statements 15 were positive and 14were negative. A five point likert-scale such as strongly agree, agree, no-opinion, disagree, strongly disagree were used to measure the level of agreement of the farmers towards e-Agriculture. In the statement a score of +2, +1, 0, -1, and -2 were assigned for responses reflected by the expressions-strongly agree, agree undecided, disagree, and strongly disagree, respectively. The attitude score of a respondent was computed by adding his scores for all the 29 statements. Statistical analysis Data collected from the respondents were analyzed and interpreted in accordance with the objectives of the study. The analysis of data was performed using statistical treatment with SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) computer program, version 20. Statistical measures as a number, range, mean, standard deviation were used in describing the variables whenever applicable. In order to estimate the contribution of the selected characteristics of farmers?attitude towards e-Agriculture, Multiple regression analysis (B) analysis was used. Throughout the study, ten percent (0.1) level of significance was used as the basis for rejecting any null hypothesis. If the computed value of (B) was equal to or greater than the designated level of significance (p), the null hypothesis was rejected and it was concluded that there was a significant contribution between the concerned variable. Whenever the computed value of (B) was found to be smaller at the designated level of significance (p), the null hypothesis could not be rejected. Hence, it was concluded that there was no contribution of the concerned variables.

Source of Information: Am. J. Soc. Mgmt. Sci., 2016, 7(1): 12-18 ISSN Print: 2156-1540, ISSN Online: 2151-1559,

Article Link (Online Journal): doi:10.5251/ajsms.2016.7.1.12.18

Funding Source:

1.

Budget:

Total Budget (Tk.) :

Achievement/Findings:

This study suggested that farmers' had a favorable attitude towards e-Agriculture in Bangladesh. In addition to that, the study also revealed the factors that effective farm size, annual household income, farming experience, participation in training, knowledge on e-Agriculture, organizational participation and cosmopoliteness had significant contribution on farmers' attitude towards e-Agriculture. These variables contributed total 61.9 percent in farmers' attitude towards e-Agriculture. Based on these findings, the researcher would like to suggest that it is high time prepare the farmers to use these e-Agriculture tools for their wellbeing through proper educational activities and to popularize this service, government should implement integrated marketing communication using the popular print and electronic media so that more and more people get aware of this service.

Knowledge Management: Journal