Data were collected from randomly selected 100(40%) respondents out of 250 respondents whose are actively involved with agroforestry practice of two (2) Unions of Jhikargacha Upazila under Jessore district named Panisara(110) and Nirbashkhola(140). Data were collected by the researchers themselves through face-to-face interview using an interview schedule during September 15 to October 12, 2008. The researchers select age, education, experience in farming, experience in agroforestry practice, family size, farm size, area potential for agroforestry practice, area under agroforestry practice, annual income, organizational participation, cosmopoliteness, training, experiment knowledge on agroforestry practice and extension contact with information sources as independent variables and problem confrontation with agroforestry practices as dependent variable for this study.
Data were collected from randomly selected 100(40%) respondents out of 250 respondents whose are actively involved with agroforestry practice of two (2) Unions of Jhikargacha Upazila under Jessore district named Panisara (110) and Nirbashkhola(140). Data were collected by the researchers themselves through face-to-face interview using an interview schedule during September 15 to October 12, 2008. The researchers select age, education, experience in farming, experience in agroforestry practice, family size, farm size, area potential for agroforestry practice, area under agroforestry practice, annual income, organizational participation, cosmopoliteness, training, experiment knowledge on agroforestry practice and extension contact with information sources as independent variables and problem confrontation with agroforestry practices as the dependent variable for this study.
Severity of problem: The severity of a problem was determined based on problem confrontation index (PCI). The PCI was determined by using the following formula,
PCI = NI x 3 + N2 X 2 + N3 X 1+ N4 X 0
Where, N1= Number of respondents confronted the problems and rated as highly severe. N2 = Number of respondents who confronted the problems and rated as moderately severe. N3 = Number of respondents who confronted the problems and rated as less severe. N4 = Number of respondents did not confront the problem at all. The PCI for each problem could range from 0 to 300. Where 0, 1-100, 101-200, 201-300, indicate not at all, less severe, moderately severe and highly severe problem respectively.
Data processing and analysis: Collected data were compiled, coded, tabulated for processing and analysis in accordance with the objectives of the study. Descriptive statistics like number, percentage, range, rank order, mean and standard deviation were used in describing the selected independent and dependent variables of the study. Throughout the study, a 5 percent (0.05) level of significance was used for rejecting the null hypothesis.