FARMER’S KNOWLEDGE ON ECOLOGICAL AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES

Abstract

The main purpose of the study was to determine the extent of knowledge on ecological agriculture of the farmer as supervised by Proshika. Attempts were also made to describe some selected characteristics of Proshika farmers and their relationship with knowledge of ecological agricultural practices. The selected characteristics were: age, education, farm size, area under ecological farming, farming experience, experience in ecological farming, annual income, training exposure and extension contact. One hundred Proshika fanners were randomly selected from a total of 125 farmers in Dhamrai upazilla under Dhaka district. A pre-tested questionnaire was used for collecting data through face-to-face interview. The duration of the study was 30 days from 01 to 31 August, 2007. Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Coefficient (r) was used to determine the relationship of farmers’ knowledge on ecological agricultural practiccs with their selected characteristics. T-tcst was used to determine the significance of the parameters. The finding revealed that average age of the respondents was 39.34 years. In the case of educational level 61 percent was within primary level. Average farm size of the respondent was 0.76 ha and area under ecological agriculture in past and present year was same. Average farming experience of the respondent was 21.36 years. It was also found from the study that 84 percent of the respondents were in medium category in case of experience of ecological farming and they were involved 4.68 years in ecological farming. The average income of the respondents was Tk 74858.80. Majority (68 percent) of the farmers possessed medium knowledge compared to 23 percent had high knowledge and only 9 percent low knowledge on ecological agriculture. Out of nine selected characteristics of the respondents, education, farm size, area under ecological agriculture, experience of ecological agriculture and annual income had positive significant relationship with their knowledge on ecological agriculture. Farmers’ age, training exposure and extension contract was negatively correlated with their knowledge on ecological agriculture while farming experience did not have any significant relationship with knowledge.