Determinants of Rice Farmers’ Adoption of Integrated Pest Management Practices in Bangladesh
Mirza Mobashwerul Haque
Department of Agricultural Extension and Information System, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Muhammad Humayun Kabir *
Department of Agricultural Extension and Information System, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Noushin Anjum Nishi
Department of Agricultural Extension and Information System, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka, Bangladesh
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Currently the technologies which are available in Bangladesh agriculture, integrated pest management (IPM) are one of the most important to them. Reasonably, the objectives of the study were to determine the adoption extent of IPM practices by the rice farmers and to determine the influencing factors of IPM adoption. The study was conducted at Mymensing district. One hundred and sixteen (116) rice farmers were asked about the use of IPM practices and it was found that majority of the farmers (82.3 percent) were under medium to high group in aspect of adoption extent of IPM practices. The factors that significantly influenced farmer’s adoption of IPM were training exposure, experience of IPM practices, extension media contact and knowledge on IPM. Among these variables, training exposure was the most influencing factor. Therefore, it can be suggested that if initiative can be taken by the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) along with other relevant organizations to increase training facilities and extension media contact then the adoption extent of IPM practices will be increased. Furthermore, more focus concentrate on the farmers belong to less experience in IPM practices and poor knowledge on IPM is also helpful to increase this environment friendly farming practice.
Keywords: Influencing factors, adoption, IPM, rice farmers