| dc.description | Bangladesh is an agricultural country with an area of 1,47,570 square kilometers. The
country has an approximate population of 153.6 millions, placed it as the highly populated
country among the least developing countries. About three-fourth of the total population
lives in rural areas, virtually all of them making their living exclusively or substantially from
agriculture. The GDP share of agriculture is 19.29. Out of the total farm holdings 15.09
million, the marginal, small, medium, large holdings account for 38.63, 49.85, 10.34 and
1.17 percent, respectively. The landless holdings account for 14.03 percent of 28.17 million
total holdings (BBS, 2012).
Bangladesh though an over populated country, it is blessed with fertile land. But due to
poverty and limited application of modern technology and inputs it's per hectare yield of
crop is still very low. There is a big gap between actual and potential yield of many crops
and therefore, there is an ample scope to increase yield of many crops (Mondol, 2010,).
At present, efforts to increase agricultural production require a significant increase in input
level and cash investment. Farmers are thus compelled to be indebted to procure those costly
seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, irrigation water, machineries and other equipment at increasing
quantities and higher rates beyond their capacity. But at the time of harvest, the
produce/products do not make profit and even do not cover production costs. In fact, it has
been enhancing food insecurity at household level. | en_US |
| dc.description.abstract | The main purpose of this study was to determine the use of Union Information
and Service Center by the farmers in receiving agricultural information and to
explore its relationships with their selected characteristics. Data were collected
through personal interviewing by using interview schedule from a sample of 102
farmers selected by multi-stage random sampling procedure from 43 villages of
Satair and Bhognagar unions under Birganj Upazila of Dinajpur district during 15
March to 25 April 2013. The use of Union Information and Service Center was
determined initially on three dimensions viz. information receive, application and
dissemination and finally the overall use of UISC by the farmers in receiving
agricultural information was determined. Overall use of UISC could range from
18 to 52, against the possible score of 0 to 90. The highest proportion (47.06
percent) of the farmers had medium use of Union Information and Service Center
compared to 29.41 percent had high use and 23.53 percent had low use. The
findings revealed that more than three-fourths (76.47 percent) of the farmers had
medium to high use of Union Information and Service Center in receiving
agricultural information. Therefore, it can be said that the Union Information and
Service Centers play a significant role in dissemination of agricultural information
among the farmers. Seven characteristics of the farmers’ viz. family education,
farm size, family income, cosmopoliteness, agricultural knowledge,
innovativeness and socio-economic status showed positive significant relationship
with their Use of Union Information and Service Center; while their age and
marketing orientation had no relationships. | en_US |
