STUDY ON THE PRESENT STATUS OF CHARLAND AGROFORESTRY IN RANGPUR DISTRICT

Abstract

The study was carried out to know the present status of charland people in respect to agroforestry practice of Kaunia and Gangachara upazila under Rangpur district. An extensive field survey and field visit were undertaken during November 2018 to March 2019 in four unions of the study area. The independent variables of the study were age, education, household size, farm size, homestead area, annual income, communication exposure, source of income and dependent variables were number of different trees and vegetable grown in homestead area, knowledge on agroforestry, impacts on livelihood of homestead agroforestry and problems of homestead agroforestry. The overall results of the study revealed that the maximum number of respondents (45%) belonged below 36 years whereas minimum number of respondents (26%) were old aged (Above 50). The educational status was found maximum (41%) as can sign name only and minimum (7%) was found as above secondary level. Among the occupational status, most of the respondents would like to do agricultural work (59%) whereas the lowest number of the respondents was under business category (7%). In case of having Agroforestry related knowledge, maximum (52%) respondent had moderate knowledge and minimum (12%) had excellent knowledge on agroforestry. In case of tree species in homestead, mango (Mangifera indica) tree species was in maximum (65%) whereas custard apple (Annona squamosa) was in minimum (5%). Among the vegetables species, bottle gourd (Lagenaria scleraria) was the most dominant species (65%) and the recessive was Brinjal (9%). In case of agroforestry product use, family consumption was found in maximum (27%) whereas only 7% was observed as distribution to neighbours. The research results also revealed that the maximum number of respondents (23.5%) didn‟t get any information from Upazila Agricultural Officer (UAO) about homestead agroforestry. Only 3.5% of the respondents got information from UAO about homestead agroforestry. But a significant number of respondents (9.5%) told that they didn‟t get any agroforestry related information from NGO staffs. Some of the problems about agroforestry practices in the study area were also identified. Tree grazing of animal was the most serious problem and lack of irrigation facilities was the second most problem in the char land area. As a whole, charland agroforestry practices would be a viable activity for the improvement of better livelihood for the charland people of Kaunia and Gangachara upazila under Rangpur district. In case of management practices like seed collection, watering, weed control, manuring and fertilization, pruning and insecticide spray were done maximum by farmers and minimum were done by children.