| dc.description.abstract | The main purpose of the study was to determine the preference of communication
sources by the rural women for homestead vegetable cultivation. The study was also to
determine and describe the selected characteristics of the rural women. The relationship
of the selected characteristics of the rural women with their preference of
communication sources was examined. The study was conducted in four unions of
Jaldhaka upazila under Nilphamari district. An updated list of (1030) rural women was
collected from the local NGOs. From that list 104 rural women were selected at
randomly as sample for this study. Data were collected during 1 to 30 July 2015 by
using an interview schedule. Each of the selected 11 characteristics of the women
namely age, education, family size, farm size, annual income, credit received, training
exposure, agricultural knowledge, organizational participation, dependency and
fatalism constituted the independent variables, while preference of communication
sources was the dependent variable. The dependent variable was determined by extent
of contact and usefulness of the selected communication sources in receiving
information on vegetable cultivation. On the other hand, 17 communication sources
were considered to determine the preference of communication sources for homestead
vegetable cultivation. Rank order for each of the communication sources was computed
by using preference of communication source index (PCSI). Pearson’s product moment
correlation co-efficient (r) was used to explore the relationship between the
independent and dependent variables. The highest proportion (72.11 percent) of
respondents had medium preference of communication source while 17.31 percent had
low and only 10.58 percent had high preference. In contrast, family members were
mentioned by majority of respondents (PCSI=557) as the most preferred
communication sources of information, and farm magazine occupied the last position
in the ranking of the most preferred communication channels (PCSI=26). Out of 11
independent variables; education, credit received, training exposure, agricultural
knowledge, and organizational participation showed significant positive relationship
while age, dependency, and fatalism of the rural women showed significant but
negative relationship with the dependent variable. The rest of the characteristics viz.
family size, farm size, and annual income of the rural women did not show any
relationship with their preference of communication sources. | en_US |
