Adoption of Selected Ecological Agricultural Practices by the Farmers

The main purpose of the study was to determine the adoption of selected ecological agricultural practices by the farmers and the personal and psychological factors affecting the adoption. Proshika-selected ecological farmers of six selected upazilas of four districts of Bangladesh constituted the population of the study. A total of 144 farmers were finally selected as the sample of the study. Data were collected from the farmers during February to August, 2006 by using a pre-tested interview schedule. Seven factors (four personal and three psychological) of the farmers were considered as the independent variables, while adoption of selected ecological agricultural practices by the farmers was the dependent variable. Overwhelming majority (86%) of the farmers had very low to low composite adoption of selected ecological agricultural practices, ecological nutrient management practices (84%) and ecological pest management practices (79%), while none had high adoption of composite ecological agricultural practices, ecological nutrient management practices and ecological pest management practices. Step-wise multiple regression analysis indicated that among the selected personal and psychological factors, attitude towards ecological agriculture of the farmers was the most crucial factor which very strongly and positively influenced their adoption of selected ecological agricultural practices. Risk orientation of the farmers also had remarkable positive influence upon adoption of selected ecological agricultural practices. The standardized partial ‘b’ co-efficients of these two significant independent variables formed the equation contributing to 65.1% of the total variation in adoption.