PERCEPTION OF FARMERS ABOUT ORGANIC FARMING PRACTICES IN DINAJPUR DISTRICT

Abstract

The purposes of the study were to know the perception of farmers about organic farming practices, to determine the relationships between the selected characteristics of the farmers and their perception about organic farming practices and to determine the problems faced by the farmers about organic farming practices. Random sampling technique was used for this study. A sample of 98 farmers from a population of 979 from two selected villages of Birganj upazila under Dinajpur district were selected. Data were collected during 1 September to 30 September 2019 by using pre-tested structured interview schedule. Nine characteristics of the farmers were selected for this study, while the perception of farmers about organic farming practices was the focus issue. Different standard statistical techniques were used to measure the selected characteristics and rating scale was used to measure the focus issue. Eighteen statements on organic farming practices were used for the focus issue. There were four options to response a statement, namely ‘high’, ‘moderate’, ‘somewhat’ and ‘not at all’ with a corresponding score of 3, 2, 1 and 0, respectively. The result indicated that 57.14 percent of the farmers had medium perception while 27.55 percent of them had low perception and 15.31 percent had high perception about organic farming practices. In contrast to individual statements it is evident that out of 18 statements ‘health consciousness among people will enhance the demand of organic products’ ranked 1st and ‘organic foods are completely safe to eat’ had the last ranked. Education, farm size, training experience, extension media contact, risk orientation and innovativeness of the farmers showed positively significant relationships with perception about organic farming practices while age, farming experience and annual income fail to show any relationships with perception about organic farming practices. The most serious problem faced by the farmers was ‘management of pest and insect damage is difficult in organic farming’ while the second problem faced by them was ‘improper community movement for the promotion of organic farming’ and the last one was ‘poor contact of extension workers with farmers’.