| dc.description.abstract | The main purpose of this study was to find out the extent and effect of transformation
of cropland into litchi orchard, to determine and describe some selected characteristics
of the litchi growers, to identify the problems faced by the litchi growers in
transformation of cropland into litchi orchard and probable suggestions given by them
to overcome the problems. The study was conducted in Sadar and Biral upazila of
Dinajpur District. An updated list of (266) litchi growers was collected from Upazila
Agriculture Office of respective upazilas. From that list, 80 litchi growers were selected
by simple random sampling procedure as sample for this study. A pretested and
structured interview schedule was used to collect data from the respondents 15 April to
15 May, 2015. Ten selected characteristics of the litchi growers namely: age,
educational qualification, farm size, farming experience, annual family income,
extension contact, agricultural knowledge, innovativeness, marketing orientation, and
attitude towards technology were investigated. Transformation of cropland into litchi
orchard was the focus issue of the study.
During the last 10 years (2005 to 2014) the area of transplanted land was 37.653 ha
out of 134.338 ha of total land. The percentage of transformation in the year 2005,
2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 were 20.62, 36.02, 43.20,
36.30, 16.85, 13.25, 28.37, 62.22, 41.35 and 35.60 percent respectively were replaced
by litchi. Farmers of the study area transform their cropland into litchi orchard in the
year of 2005 to 2014 were 09.669, 13.198, 02.070, 03.093, 02.098, 01.273, 01.397,
02.228, 01.157 and 01.470 ha respectively. The major crops such as rice, maize and
wheat, and some minor crops i.e. potato, vegetable, mustard, garlic, turmeric and napier
grass were replaced by litchi. The effect of transformation on economic, environmental,
household food security, and social status were considered as medium by 60.00 percent,
70.00 percent, 61.25 percent, and 58.75 percent respectively of the litchi growers. The
most important problem identified by the litchi growers was ‘getting fair price is
difficult due to interfere of middleman’ and the least problem was identified by the
litchi growers was ‘high production cost’. On the other hand, the apex solution
suggested by the respondents was ‘organizing more training program for the farmers’
while the least one was ‘appropriate co-ordination among the litchi farmers’. | en_US |
