DETERMINANTS OF ADOPTION OF CONSERVATION AGRICULTURE PRACTICE IN SOME SELECTED AREAS OF BANGLADESH

Abstract

The study was conducted to determine and describe some characteristics of the farmers and to identify the factors that affect the adoption of conservation agriculture in Bangladesh. A total of 100 (i.e; 64 adopter of CA & 36 non-adopter of CA) farmers from two districts were selected for this study. Descriptive statistics and probit model was used to achieve the objectives. Using frequency distribution, it was found that 48.4% of adopter’s age lies between 41-50 and 30.6% of non-adopter’s age was in the group of 31-50. Most of the adopter and non-adopter farmers have only secondary level education. 82.8% of adopter’s have high income whereas 77.8% of non-adopters have high income which is relatively low compared to adopter farmers of conservation agriculture. About 53.1% of adopter farmers belong to small farmers group whereas 77.8% of non-adopter farmers belong to small farmers. That means conservation agriculture practice is relatively more popular in large farmers group than small farmers group. Using probit model, it was found that the farm size, training on CA and drought events in study area has a tremendous contribution on probability of adoption of conservation agriculture. Input support, motivation, training programs and extension services are recommended to implement in order to raise the awareness and enrich the knowledge of the farmers on conservation agriculture practice.