A Comparison between Organic and Inorganic Farmers’ Attitude towards Organic Farming

The main objectives of this research were to compare the attitude of organic and conventional farmers towards organic farming and to relate selected characteristics of the farmers with their attitude towards organic farming. Data were collected from 50 conventional and 50 organic farmers in Delduar upazila under Tangail district during July to October 2006. Nine selected characteristics of the farmers, namely age, educational qualification, family size, farm size, farming experience, annual household income, organizational participation, knowledge on organic farming and extension media contact were the independent variables while attitude of the farmers towards organic farming was the dependent variable. Study revealed 72 percent of the organic farmers possessed highly favourable and 56 percent of the conventional farmers had moderately favourable attitude towards organic farming. Among nine characteristics of the organic farmers, four viz. educational qualification, organizational participation, knowledge on organic farming, and extension media contact showed positively significant relationships with their attitude towards organic farming. In case of conventional farmers, educational qualification and knowledge on organic farming had significant positive relationship with their attitude towards organic farming, while age and total farming experience had significant negative relationship with their attitude towards organic farming.