FARMERS ATTITUDE TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES

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1 BANGLADESH RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS JOURNAL ISSN: , Volume: 8, Issue: 4, Page: 7-4, July - August, 01 Review Paper FARMERS ATTITUDE TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES Mithun Kumar Ghosh 1 and Shaikh Shamim Hasan* Mithun Kumar Ghosh and Shaikh Shamim Hasan (01). Farmers Attitude towards Sustainable Agricultural Practices. Bangladesh Res. Pub. J. 8(4): 7-4. Retrieve from Abstract The main purpose of this study was to determine attitude of the farmers towards sustainable agriculture. The study was conducted in two villages (Tejrol and Rajapur) of two different unions of Sadar Upazila of Jessore district. Ninety respondents were selected following two-stage proportionate random sampling technique during January to March, 01. Compilation and interpretation were done as per objectives of the study. Findings indicated that majority of the respondents (48.9%) were young aged, had primary level of education (4.4%), had small farm size (85.5%) and large family size (51.1%). The respondents had low extension contact (8.%), medium farming experience (45.6%) and they had low cosmopoliteness (45.6%). It was also found that majority of the respondents (51.1%) had low knowledge. They showed medium attitude (65.6%) towards sustainable agricultural practices. Moreover, level of education, farm size, annual income, cosmopoliteness, extension contact and knowledge had positive and significant relationship with the attitude of the farmers towards sustainable agriculture. The results of the study showed that the higher the socioeconomic status (more frequent contact with extension services, higher education, ownership of land, etc.) and the greater the access to information, the greater the perceived importance of sustainable agricultural practices. It is concluded that if policy-makers and extension organizations concentrate on these factors, they are more likely to succeed in making farmers more favorably disposed toward sustainable agriculture. Key words: Attitude, Sustainable Agriculture. Introduction Bangladesh has an agrarian economy. Agriculture is the single largest producing sector of the economy since it comprises about 0% of the country's GDP and employs around 48.4% of the total labor force (Annon, 01). The performance of this sector has an overwhelming impact on major macroeconomic objectives like employment generation, poverty alleviation, human resources development and food security as well. It is estimated that the total land area of Bangladesh is about 14.4 million ha, of which about 66.6% is arable that are divided into 0 AEZ and 88 sub-regions based on physical environment (Annon, 009). That arable land is being fragmented into small pieces because of the large number of farm holdings. As the population increases over time, it demands for a change about the cultivation systems of agriculture. In this regards, cropping intensification were adopted to meet up the challenge of the food demand of 1 st century. But in turn, it renders manifold problem on agriculture and environment. However, experts are concerned about the food production and its security for the increased population. *Corresponding Author: [email protected] 1. MS Student Department of Agricultural Exttension and Rural Development, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University (BSMRAU), Gazipur , Bangladesh.. Assistant Professor, Department of Agricultural Exttension and Rural Development, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University (BSMRAU), Gazipur 1706.

2 Ghosh and Hasan. The application of modern agricultural science and technology has contributed to increase productivity of agriculture in the last half-century. The successes of agriculture, however, have been accompanied by many ecological problems. Today, both rural and urban inhabitants feel threatened by dangers posed to the environment by modern agricultural practices such as the heavy use of chemicals. An alternative farming strategy called sustainable agriculture promises remedies to the problems created by industrialized chemical based agriculture, if sustainable agriculture can be shown to be viable and become widely accepted (Roling and Wagemakers, 00). Currently, the world shows extensive worries on the destructive effects of advanced agricultural technologies on the environment, natural resources and long term sustainability of agronomy systems. Soil degradation, erosion, water pollution, excessive use of chemicals, waste of water, decreasing ground water tables, destruction of natural habitats for wildlife and insects and pests resistance against insecticide and pesticide are only a few of the concerns expressed by environmentalists, ecologists, agricultural professionals, policy makers, farmers and public (Leeuwis, 004; Al-Subaiee et al., 005). Despite these environmental effects at many places, the modern agriculture has been involved in many economic and social changes both in the industrial and developing countries. Sustainable agriculture, as a managerial philosophy and a system that provides agricultural needs of both present and future generations has raised as a major challenge of the 1 st century to meet these complications and natural and human difficulties; that is, agriculture should be consume less and be sustainable more (Williams, 000; Qamar, 00; Rasul and Thapa, 00; Shariate and Hosseyni, 00; Leeuwis, 004; Shahvali and Abedi, 005; Ahmadvand et al., 005). Sustainable agriculture as farming that makes the best use of natural goods and services while not damaging the environment. It minimizes the use of no renewable inputs (pesticides and fertilizers) that damage the environment or harm the health of farmers and consumers. In addition, it makes better use of the knowledge and skills of farmers (Duesterhaus, 1990).The concept of sustainable agricultural practices is of concern for farmers, extension agents, agricultural education teachers, and others working in agricultural related occupations. Sustainability requires a holistic approach in order to understand the whole as an aggregation of interwoven parts working together (Hartfield and Karlen, 001). The performance of sustainable agricultural practices is judged not in terms of how each practice works separately, but in terms of how the individual practices fit together and relate to each other, and how the systems that result relate to their environment and to other systems in the environment (Roling and Wagemakers, 00). The ultimate goal or the ends of sustainable agriculture is to develop farming systems that are productive and profitable, conserve the natural resource base, protect the environment, and enhance health and safety, and to do so over the long-term. Considering the above mentioned facts, the study was undertaken with the following objectives: 1. To determine the selected socio-demographic characteristics of farmers;. To determine the attitude of farmers towards sustainable agriculture;. To explore the relationship between selected characteristics of the farmers and their attitude towards sustainable agriculture. Methodology Lebutala and Ichali union of Jessore Sadar upazila of Jessore district were selected as the locale of the study. All farmers of Tejrol village of Lebutala union and Rajapur village of Ichali union were the population of the study. At first two villages, Tejrol and Rajapur were selected randomly from two unions. Total number of farm families in Tejrol and Rajapur were 4 and 67 respectively. 50 farmers from Tejrol village and 40 farmers from Rajapur village were selected as sample following two-stage proportionate random sampling technique. Thus the total number of sample respondents was 90. Face to face interviewing by using structured interview schedule was used to collect data and the entire process of data collection were done from February to March, 01. Measurement of dependent variable Farmers attitude towards sustainable agricultural practices was considered as the dependent variable of this study. Farmer s attitude was measured by asking his opinion 8

3 Sustainable Agricultural Practices upon 5 attitudinal statements on sustainable agricultural practices. 5-point Likert type scale was used for this purpose. Score 5 was assigned to strongly agree statements, while 4,, and 1 was assigned for agree, neutral, disagree and strongly disagree statements respectively. In case of negative attitudinal statement, reverse score was assigned to each response. Based on the computed scores the respondents were classified into three categories according to Salawat et al., 01, i.e., low attitude (up to 8 scores), medium attitude (8 to 106 scores) and high attitude (above 106 scores). Measurement of independent variables The independent variables of this study were farmer s age, education, family size, farm size, annual income, farming experience, cosmopoliteness, extension contact, and knowledge. Age of a farmer was measured on the basis of actual age of his life and expressed in years. The education was measured by the number of years of schooling. Family size was measured by the total number of members including the farmer himself, spouse, children and other permanent dependents who lived together as a family unit. The total land area possessed by the farmer under farm and homestead was the basis of measuring farm size in this study and it was expressed in acre. The yearly income of the farmer from different sources was the annual income of the respondent. Farming experience was determined by the duration of experience of a farmer in agricultural works and expressed in years. Farmer s visit to different places outside of his own village was the basis of cosmopoliteness score measurement. For measuring extension contact of the farmer, a four-point scale i.e, not at all, rarely, occasionally and frequently was used and appropriate weights were assigned to quantify the variable. Twenty one questions were selected in the interview schedule for measuring farmers knowledge on sustainable agricultural practices. The score assigned against each item was for fully correct answer, 1 for partial correct answer and 0 for incorrect answer. Weight for responses on the 1 questions of a farmer were added together to get his score for on sustainable agricultural practices. Necessary tables and categories were used to classify the data considering their nature and distribution. As per the objective of the study, statistical tests like frequency counts, percentage, mean, standard deviation were used for analysis and interpretation of data. Correlation coefficients were used for hypothesis testing and 0.05 and 0.01 level probabilities were used as the basis for exploring relationship between the concerned variables throughout the study. Results and Discussion Selected characteristics of the respondents Data displayed in the Table 1 indicated that the young aged constituted the highest proportion (48.9.%) of the respondent followed by middle and old aged category with an average of 8.9 years. 4.44% of the respondents got primary level education which was the highest followed by Secondary level, no education and Tertiary level education. The largest farm size was 5.6 acre with an average of 1.18 acre. The highest proportion (85.56%) of the farmer had small farm size followed by medium and large farm size respectively. The number of family members of the farmers ranged from to 10 with an average was The income of the farmers ranged from Tk to Tk , the average was Tk Farming experience scores of the farmers could range from 5 to 45 years, with an average was 0.9 years. The highest proportion (45.6%) of the farmer fell in medium experience category followed by high experience and low experience. The maximum (45.6%) of the farmers had low cosmopoliteness followed by high medium cosmopoliteness. Most of the respondents had low extension contact (8.%) followed by medium and high extension contact. Knowledge scores on sustainable agricultural practices of the farmers ranged from 8 to 41, with an average was 0.1. The highest proportion (51.1%) of the farmers fell in low knowledge category compared to medium and in high knowledge category. 9

4 Ghosh and Hasan. Table 1. Categories of the selected characteristics of the farmers Characteristics Categories Farmers (%) Observed score Mean SD Age Young 48.9 Middle. to 65 years Old 17.8 Education No education 4.4 Primary level education to Secondary level education 6.6 Tertiary level education 14.4 Farm size Small 85.5 Medium to 5.6 acre Large 0 Family size 1 member 0 - member 10 to member member 51.1 Annual income Up to tk tk to 60000tk to tk More than Farming Low experience 18.9 experience Medium experience to High experience 5.5 Cosmopoliteness Low 45.6 Medium to High 4.4 Extension Low contact 8. contact Medium contact to High contact. Knowledge Low 51.1 Medium to High Attitude towards sustainable agricultural practices Data contained in Table indicated that the farmers had top most attitude on the sustainable agriculture practices in respect of Application of cowdung and compost increase soil fertility was the highest (SPI=4) followed by Technology should be used as best as possible to increase efficiency of agricultural production (SPI=418). Then Manuring improve water conservation in the soil (SPI=416) was in third position. Over use of chemical fertilizers is responsible for lower soil fertility (SPI=414) was in fourth. From the first four statements it can be said that most of the respondents of the study area were agreed to the use of compost and green manure in their field replacing chemical fertilizer. They also mentioned that chemical fertilizer is harmful for soil. From some other statements it can be said that the respondents were agreed to the importance of sustainable agriculture to the environment, use of crop rotation, long term productivity.

5 Sustainable Agricultural Practices Table. Rank order of the statements according to their attitude index Sl. Statements No. SA A U DA SDA SPI Rank 1. Application of cowdung and compost 6 increase soil fertility. (+) Technology should be used as best as possible to increase efficiency of agricultural 6 production. (+) Manuring improve water conservation in the soil. Over (+) use of chemical fertilizers is responsible 61 6 for lower soil fertility. (+) The successful farmer is who earns enough 1 1 from farming to enjoy a good standard of living. (+) Sustainable agriculture practices are useful to protect the environment. (+) Crop rotation improves soil texture. (+) Sustainability should consider only at farm level.(-) Sustainable agriculture practices are beneficial to agriculture. (+) Environmental problem may hinder productivity. Farmers should (+) be informed to use sustainable agricultural practices.(+) Sustainable agriculture is useful to maintain 1 4 long-term productivity of farming system.(+) Without use of chemical agriculture is not possible.(-) Sustainable agriculture requires less amount of chemical fertilizer. (+) Soil and water are the sources of all life and 4 should therefore be strictly conserved. (+) Chemical herbicides are more suitable to control weed. (-) 17. Modern agriculture is a major cause of ecological problems and must be greatly modified to become ecologically sound. (+) 18. Planting more trees is an indicator of Sustainable agriculture. (+) 19. It is not necessary to use composting since farmers still use fertilizers to replenish the soil.(- ) 0. The best way to control and reduce damage of farm pests and weed is 1. biological Sustainable control. agriculture (+) practices are not easy to apply. (-). I am not clear which agriculture practices are sustainable. (-) Sustainable agriculture can be applied only on small family farms. (-) 4. Sustainable agriculture is not economically profitable. (-) Index: SA=Strongly Agree, A=Agree, U=Undecided, DA=Disagree, SDA=Strongly Disagree 5. Crop rotation requires more labor than other 1 agricultural practices. (-) The respondents showed negative attitude to some statements. Sustainable agriculture practices are not easy to apply (SPI=45) was in 1 st, I am not clear which agriculture practices are sustainable (SPI=7) was in nd, Sustainable agriculture can be applied only on small family farms (SPI=1) was in rd, Sustainable agriculture is not 1

6 Ghosh and Hasan. economically profitable (SPI=170) was in 4 th and Crop rotation requires more labor than other agricultural practices (SPI=19) was in 5 th. From the above statements it can be said that sustainable agriculture was clear to most of the respondents and they opined that it is easy to apply, economically profitable, no need of extra labor. Based on the computed scores the respondents were classified into three categories i.e., low attitude (up to 8 scores), medium attitude (8 to 106 scores) and high attitude (above 106 scores). From Figure 1 it is clear that majority (65.6%) of the respondents had medium attitude towards sustainable agriculture followed by 1.1% low and 1.% high attitude respectively. Figure 1: Distribution of the farmers according to their attitude towards sustainable agricultural practices However, it is observed that an overwhelming majority (79%) of the respondents in the study area had medium to high attitude towards sustainable agriculture. Most of the respondents of the study area knew the importance of sustainable agriculture. Many of them were agreed to the necessity of practicing sustainable agriculture to maintain a proper environment for agricultural production. They opined that, modern techniques like excess use of chemical fertilizer made the field unproductive and it is a threat to the agriculture. Relationship between selected characteristics of the farmers and their attitude towards sustainable agricultural practices Coefficient of correlation was computed in order to explore the relationships between the selected characteristics of the farmers and their attitude towards sustainable agricultural practices. The null hypothesis was there was no statistically significant relationship exists between the selected characteristics of the farmers and their attitude towards sustainable agricultural practices. Relationships between the selected characteristics of the farmers and their attitude towards sustainable agricultural practices have been presented in Table. Table. Relationship between selected characteristics of the farmers and their attitude towards sustainable agricultural practices Selected personal attributes Co-efficient of correlation (r) Age Level of education 0.560** Farm size 0.4** Family size Annual Income 0.9** Farming experience Cosmopoliteness 0.549** Extension contact Knowledge ** Significant at 0.01 level of probability 0.400** 0.64**

7 Sustainable Agricultural Practices The level of education had significant positive relationship with the farmers attitude towards sustainable agricultural practices when r value was 0.560** at 1% level of significance. It means that the higher the level of education of the farmers, the higher their attitude towards sustainable agricultural practices, i.e., the educated respondents had better practice of sustainable agriculture. So the null hypothesis there was no significant relationship between education and the response towards sustainable agricultural practice was rejected. Education helped to gain knowledge and thus increased their power of understanding. Consequently their outlook was broadened and horizon of knowledge was expanded. The real and outer world is exposed to an educated man and he can gain various experiences for perceiving a thing better (Uddin and Rahman, 008). Thus, with the increase of level of education, sustainable agricultural practices increase. Study made by Mominul (011) also demonstrated similar findings. There was a positive and significant relationship between farm size and farmers attitude on sustainable agriculture practices as r value was 0.4** at 1% level of significance. So the null hypothesis was rejected. It indicates that the higher the farm size, the higher the response on sustainable agricultural practices, i.e., farmers with medium and large farm size had more response on sustainable agriculture practices. Farmers those had more farm can take more risk than those had less farm. This risk bearing ability also increased the response towards sustainable agricultural practices. Rahman (005) also found similar findings in his studies. The annual income of the farmers had significant positive relationship with attitude of the sustainable agricultural practices with computed r value was 0.9**. It means that the higher the level of income of the respondents, the higher their attitude towards sustainable agricultural practices. Afrad (009) also found similar results in his studies. Cosmopoliteness of the respondents had positive significant relationship with attitude towards sustainable agricultural practices with computed r value was 0.549** at 1% level of significance. It means that the higher the level of cosmopoliteness of the respondents, the higher their attitude on sustainable agricultural practices. People differ in their traveling to different places while others confined themselves within a narrow boundary. Those people, who are outward going by nature, come into contact with different people, see new experience and ideas. These people liberate themselves from narrow attitudes and develop within themselves a clearer outlook on life. These people exhibit different attitudes and behaviors in many aspects of everyday life compared to others. Mominul (011) found similar result in his studies. Extension contact of the respondents had positive significant relationship with the attitude of the farmers towards sustainable agricultural practices and the computed r value was 0.400** at 1% level of significance. So the null hypothesis there was no significant relationship between extension contact and the attitude towards sustainable agricultural practice was rejected. That means higher the level of extension contact of the respondents, the higher their attitude n sustainable agricultural practices. Similar relationship was also obtained by Alam (007). Conclusion i. Most of the farmers of the study area were young aged, having large family size, small farm holding and had primary level of education with low to medium annual income and medium farming experience. Most of them had low extension contact, and low cosmopoliteness. ii. More than sixty percent (65.6%) of the respondents had medium attitude towards sustainable agricultural practices compared to 1.1 % having low attitude and 1.% had high attitude towards sustainable agricultural practices. The findings revealed that farmers had a moderate attitude towards sustainable agricultural practices. This might be due to the fact that a considerable proportion of the farmers had not enough training exposure, moderate use of source of information and low extension contact. iii. Coefficient of correlation test indicated that education, farm size, annual income, cosmopoliteness, extension contact and knowledge showed positive significant relationship with the attitude of the farmers towards sustainable agricultural practices,

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