FARMER’S PERCEPTION ON Eucalyptus camaldulensis PLANTATION IN THE HOMESTEAD AND CROPLAND AGROFORESTRY IN THE NORTHERN PART OF BANGLADESH

Abstract

The present research work was done to know the farmer’s present situation about farm size, family size and economic conditions as well as also to find out the status of Eucalyptus species, people’s consciousness and knowledge on performance of Eucalyptus species in homestead and cropland agroforestry. Dinajpur Sadar upazilla under Dinajpur district was selected purposively from a total of 13 upazillas. Four (04) Unions were selected from the upazilla using multistage sampling for the study. A sample of 100 farmers were selected, 25 from each of the selected union (Uthrail, Shankarpur, Sekhpura and Kamalpur) of Dinajpur Sadar upazilla with equal probability to each farm category by stratified random sampling. Data for this study were collected through personal interview during November 2018 to January 2019 using the interview schedule. The variables were age, level of education, family size, homestead area, crop farm size, number of Eucalyptus trees in homestead, number of Eucalyptus trees in cropland, annual income, knowledge of plantation program and knowledge on fuel wood and its use. The results revealed that the middle group was majority in responding the interview schedule than young and old age groups and most of the respondents were illiterate. The highest proportion 40 % of the respondent was small and lowest was land less 8% size compared to 22, 20, and 10 % of marginal, medium and large homestead size, respectively. The highest proportion i.e. 35 % of the respondent were medium compared to 30%, 20 %, 10 % and 5 % in marginal, small, large and landless, crop farm categories, respectively. The maximum number of eucalyptus tree (126) was found in the homestead of Kamalpur followed by (74) in Uthrail and (63) in Shankarpur. On the other hand the minimum number of eucalyptus trees in homestead (47) was recorded in Sekhpura. Percent of Eucalyptus trees was highest (40%) in Kamalpur and lowest (16%) in Sekhpura. From the result of the study it was found that 22% trees were occupied in homestead agroforestry. In cropland agroforestry, eucalyptus trees was highest (40%) in Uthrail and lowest (16%) in Sekhpura. The result reveled that more than 55 % of the respondents belonged to high income while 35 % had medium income and only 10 % had low income. Thus, the results were indicated that homestead and cropland agroforestry is a vital source of income of the house hold. Moreover, the present research findings also reflected that peoples of northern part of Bangladesh are very conscious about their homestead and cropland agroforestry in selecting the tree especially Eucalyptus camaldulensis though there are some controversy in Eucalyptus camaldulensis plantation in environmental aspect.