TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION BY THE FARMERS OF RANGPUR DISTRICT FOR CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION

Abstract

The study was carried out to assess the extent of technology adoption by the farmers for climate change adaptation. The specific objectives of the study were: i) to determine and describe the extent of adoption of technologies by the farmers for climate change adaptation, ii) to explore the relationship between extent of adoption of technologies for climate change adaptation by the farmers and their selected characteristics, and iii) to determine the problems confrontation of the farmers in adopting technologies for climate change adaptation. The study was conducted in Gangachara Upazila under Rangpur district. Ninety three (93) respondents were selected as sample from a recent list of 310 farmers using random sampling method. Data were collected by a pre-tested interview schedule during 15 February to 25 March 2013. Besides the usual descriptive statistical parameter, Pearson product moment correlation coefficient (r) was also used for the statistical analysis. Among ten selected technologies for technology adoption of the farmers for climate change adaptation included in the study area “crop rotation” was the highest with Technology Adoption Index (TAI) of 168 and it was followed by “irrigation in drought” (TAI= 158), while “sweet gourd cultivation in sandbar” was ranked lowest (TAI= 7) followed by “relay cropping” (TAI= 46). Slightly more than two-fifths (41.9 percent) of the respondents had medium adoption of technologies for climate change adaptation, while 36.6 percent of them had low adoption and 21.5 percent had high adoption. Computed ‘r’ value indicated that ‘extension media contact’, ‘organizational participation’, ‘cosmopoliteness’ and ‘climate change knowledge’ showed significant positive relationship with their adoption of technologies for climate change adaptation. ‘educational qualification’, ‘annual income’,’ farm size’ and ‘climate change awareness’ had positive but nonsignificant relationship with technology adoption. Age and family size had negative and significant relation with technology adoption. “lack of knowledge on climate change” was the main problem in technology adoption” followed by “lack of training facilities for technology adoption”.