Arifa Sharmin
Forestry and Wood Technology Discipline, Khulna University, Khulna -9208, Bangladesh.
Shahriar Ashik Rabbi
Forestry and Wood Technology Discipline, Khulna University, Khulna -9208, Bangladesh.
Agroforestry; Farmer’s attitude; Perception; Jhenaidah District.
Jhenaidah district, Bangladesh
Farming System
Study Area Jhenaidah was a former subdivision of Jessore district. It became a separate district in 1984. Jhenaidah is surrounded on the north by Kushtia and Rajbari districts, on the east by Magura district, on the south by Jessore district and on the west by Chuadanga district and India. The total area of the district is 1,964.77 sq. km (758.60 sq. miles). The district lies between 23º13` and 23º46` North latitudes and between 88º42` and 89º23` East longitudes. The district consists of 6 upazillas, 67 unions, 945 mauzas, 1144 villages, 6 paurashavas, 54 wards and 136 mahallas. The upazillas are Jhenaidah Sadar, Shailkupa, Kaliganj, Harinakundu, Kotchandpur and Maheshpur. Total population of the district is 17, 71,304 among them total male is 8, 86,402 and female is 8, 84,902. The malefemale ratio is about 100. The density of the area is 902 per sq. km. About 87.23% of the population lives in rural area and 12.77% are in urban area. Total literacy of this district is 48.4% (both male and female) [11]. The economy of Jhenaidah district is predominantly agricultural. People generally grows paddy, jute, wheat, sugarcane and mustard seed, onion garlic and varieties of pulse and vegetables are the major crops of this district. Besides various fruits like mango, banana, jackfruit, guava, coconut, etc are grown [11]. The study was conducted at Jhenaidah district of Bangladesh during May 2014. An exploratory survey was conducted in Jhenaidah district to explore information regarding the demographic profile of respondents, annual income of respondents, and cultivation practice, attitude, perception and thinking towards agroforestry practice. During the study a multistage random sampling technique was adopted. Jhenaidah district was selected purposively as the study area. Four upazilla are namely- 1. Jhenaidah Sadar, 2. Kaligonj, 3. Shailkupa and 4. Kotchandpur were selected randomly. These are first sampling unit. Then again from each upazilla two unions were selected randomly as second sampling unit. Finally, two villages from each union were selected as third sampling unit. From each village more or less five to seven (in accordance with availability) respondents were selected. A total of 102 respondents participated in the face-to-face interview. A detailed socio-economic survey was conducted by using a semi structured questionnaire [8,13-18] to assess the demographic profile of the respondents, present agroforestry practices in Jhenaidah district, farmer's attitude towards the practice and problems related to the practice. All the sampling units are shown in the Table 1 (above). A Likert scale is a psychometric scale commonly involved in research that employs questionnaires. It is the most widely used approach to scaling responses in survey research, such that the term is often used interchangeably with rating scale, or more accurately the Likert-type scale, even though the two are not synonymous. When responding to a Likert questionnaire item, respondents specify their level of agreement or disagreement on a symmetric agrees-disagrees scale for a series of statements. Thus, the range captures the intensity of their feelings for a given item.
Journal of Agriculture and Ecology Research International 6(4): 1-10, 2016; Article no.JAERI.21760
ISSN: 2394-1073
Journal