CONSTRAINTS FACED BY THE FARMERS IN LOTKON CULTIVATION

Abstract

The main focus of the present study was to determine the constraints faced by the farmers in lotkon cultivation and to explore the relationships between the constraints faced by the farmers and their selected characteristics. The study was conducted at Joynogar village of Joynogar union and Shristighor village of Josar union as the typical area for lotkon cultivation of Shibpur Upazilla under Narsingdi District. Data were collected from proportionately randomly selected 100 lotkon farmers from an update list of 997 lotkon farmers of the study area which was prepared with the help of Sub-Assistant Agricultural Officers of that area. The researcher himself collected data through personal contact with a well structured pretested interview schedule during the period from Otto 30 September, 2012. The study revealed that highest proportion (65 percent) of the respondents faced medium constraints in lotkon cultivation, while 21 percent and 14 percent of the respondents faced high and low constraints respectively. Pearson's Product Moment Correlation co-efficient (r) was computed to explore the relationships between the constraints faced by the farmers in lotkon cultivation and their each of twelve selected characteristics. The correlation analysis indicated that education, extension media contact, training exposure, innovativeness, attitude towards lotkon cultivation and knowledge on lotkon cultivation had significant negative relationships with the constraints faced by the farmers in lotkon cultivation. Age, lotkon farm size, land possession, number of lotkon trees, annual family income and annual income from lotkon had non-significant relationships with the problems in lotkon cultivation. The Constraint Faced Index (CFI) indicated that the farmers faced highest problem in "lower price in the field than the urban market" followed by "lowcr germination of female plant" and "lack of necessary technical advice from the extension workers"