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Factors Influencing Adoption of Crossbred Cattle in Different Agro-ecological Zones of Bangladesh

M. A. Quddus
Department of Agricultural and Applied Statistics, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh-2202, Bangladesh

Abstract/ Executive Summary:

Crossbred cattle farming by small farm holders is one of the promising agricultural activities to enhance the financial and nutritional status of the rural people of Bangladesh. Several factors influence the rural farmers to raise crossbred cattle farming. Thus, the research investigates the demographic, socio-economic and agro-ecological factors and farming assets and facilities of the small farm holders that influence the adoption of crossbreds. A multistage random sampling technique was used to a random selection of 300 cattle households in four agro-ecological zones. Chi-square tests were carried out to assess the association between cattle breeds and levels of variables. Also, the binary logistic regression model was used to determine the effects of the factors. Age group, level of education, occupation, household income, farming experience and reception of extension services were significantly (p<0.01) associated with the adoption of crossbred cattle. Extension services (OR=128.82, 95%CI=27.74-598.2) and higher income group (OR=6.138, 95%CI=1.352-27.87) were significant and more likely to adopt crossbred cattle compared to no extension services and low-income group respectively. Secondary educated farmers were 3.64 times more likely (OR=3.642, 95%CI=1.24-10.67) and higher than secondary educated farmers were 7.58 times more likely (OR=7.579, 95%CI=2.45-23.40) to adopt crossbred cattle compared to illiterate or primary educated farmers. The industrial zone was more likely and the other two zones were less likely to the adoption of crossbred cattle compare to the river basin zone. Youths should be trained and educated and also extension services should be provided to the farmers to raise crossbred cattle for increased milk production and household poverty alleviation.

Keywords: Crossbred cattle, Smallholders, Farmers’ characteristics, Adoption, Binary logistic regression model

Location: Mymensingh district of Bangladesh

Start Date: 00-07-2017

End Date: 00-06-2018

Program Area: Animal Health and Management

Commodity: Cattle

Objectives:

To investigate the demographic, socioeconomic, farming facilities and agro-ecological factors and determine their influence on adoption of crossbred cattle.

Methodology:

Four agro-ecological study locations were selected from all over Bangladesh in order to economize time and labor. These were (i) Bramhaputra river basin and mid-region of the country (Mymensingh district), (ii) industrial zone having high employment opportunity (Gazipur district), (iii) rural plain land and northwest region of the country (Gaibandha district) and (iv) northern hill sites (Sherpur district). The major occupation of the people in these regions is farming and mixed farming predominantly practiced, with most farmers blending crops and livestock in the farming activities. Some of the farmers’ major occupation is services, business and laborer, especially in the first and second zones and cattle is the subsidized farming. A multistage sampling procedure was used to select farm households for this study. The four regions were considered as the four strata of the sampled population. During the first stage, one random sub-district called upazila from each of the regions was selected randomly. During the second stage, three villages from each upazila were randomly selected using a simple random sampling technique. During the third stage, 25 households (approximately 10% of the population households) were selected from each village using a simple random sampling technique. Finally, a total of 300 cattle farmers having at least a lactating cow from the selected villages were found to collect data in four agro-ecological zones. Prior to farm household sampling, an initial complete listing of all the farm households in the selected areas was obtained. Primary data were collected through personal interviews by a trained enumerator using a pre-tested semi-structured survey questionnaire from the selected households. Frequent supervision was made by the researchers to correct the likely errors on the spot. A data collection questionnaire was developed considering the earlier researchers and using an extensive review of the literature. Interviews were conducted mostly at the sites of the farmers’ workplaces and in some cases at the farmers’ homes. If any data appeared to be inconsistent, the farmers were again communicated for correct answers. The data collection was started in July 2017 and ended in June 2018. The breed of cattle is the dependent variable in this study, which is categorized into two levels crossbred or indigenous. Adoption of crossbred cattle representing the decision to adopt is modeled as a dummy variable that represents the probability of the household adopting crossbred or not. For the household that adopts crossbred cattle, the variable takes on the value of one and the value of zero for the household that does not adopt crossbred cattle. The most common related independent variables those are directly or indirectly influence the farming of crossbred cattle were used in this study. Farmers’ demographic, socioeconomic and farming characteristics and the agro-ecological zones are the influencing independent variables that are described below. Demographic variables: The age of the household head is a continuous variable and measured in years, which is expected to affect technology adoption. It is hypothesized that there is an indirect relationship between the age of household heads and dairy technology adoption. As the age of the household head increased, the probability of adoption decreased because they are inactive to participate in the new technology, most likely due to being more influenced by culture. Age was categorized as 0 if < 35 years, 1 if 35-49 years and 2 if > 49 years. Education plays an important role in the adoption of any innovative or new technology. Further, education is believed to improve the readiness of the household to accept new ideas and innovations and get updated demand and supply price information, which in turn enhances producers’ willingness to produce more and increase milk market entry decision and volume of sale. Therefore, the more educated the household head, the higher the likelihood to decide for dairy technology adoption. It is a continuous variable but it was converted to a dummy variable that took a value of 0 if the household head was illiterate or primary educated, 1 if the household head was educated at the secondary level and 2 if he/she was educated at higher secondary or more. Family size or number of members in the households is a continuous variable. As cattle farming or dairying is labor-intensive: dairy production, in general, and marketable surplus of dairy products in particular, is a function of labor. Accordingly, households with more family members tended to have more labor and to adopt dairy technology than households with fewer family members, which in turn increased milk production and then milk market participation of the households. Family size was categorized as 0 if 1 to 4 members termed as a small family, 1 if 5 to 8 members termed as a medium family and 2 if more than 8 members termed as large family. Sex or gender is expected to affect crossbred technology adoption and male farmer heads adopt technology more than female-headed as they had more access and exposure to get the information about the technology. But a few numbers of female-headed farmers (less than 5%) were found in this study, which does not reflect the gender effect and hence this variable was excluded from the model.

Source of Information: Journal of Agriculture, Food and Environment, Vol 1 No 4 December 2020 Pages 100-106

Article Link (Online Journal): DOI: https://doi.org/10.47440/JAFE.2020.1415

Funding Source:

Budget:

Total Budget (Tk.) :

Achievement/Findings:

Cattle farming activities may be increased by increasing educated members in the family and through improving training facilities for the youths. Farmers should be invested a better portion of their total income in cattle farming and hence farmers should be motivated to invest and participate in this job. Younger farmers and extension service receivers were interested in crossbred cattle but farmers of the low educated and lower-income groups were used to indigenous cattle farming. The government has taken policies for livestock and dairy development and extension workers and researchers are providing a lot of facilities to the farmers. Still, now, farmers’ awareness and use of crossbred cattle are very low in the study area. Positively associated factors in this study had a probability of increasing the adoption of crossbred cattle. Thus, intensive extension service is very essential to motivate and transform knowledge to the livestock farmers for increasing crossbred cattle farming.

Knowledge Management: Journal