Farmers’ Perception of Utilizing Nutrient Sources for Integrated Plant Nutrient System towards Sustainable Crop Production

The study was carried out to determine farmers’ perception of utilizing nutrient sources for integrated plant nutrient system (IPNS) towards sustainable crop production and exploring the relationships of their selected characteristics with their perception of utilizing nutrient sources for IPNS. Data were collected during September 2007 to March 2008 through pre-tested interview schedule from randomly selected 232 respondents from Gouripur union of Gouripur Upazila under Mymensingh district. The selected 16 characteristics of the farmers were considered as the independent variables and their perception of utilizing nutrient sources for IPNS constituted the dependent variable. A four-point rating scale was used to measure the perception of the farmers. The observed perception score ranged from 23 to 73 against a possible range of 0 to 75, with an average of 54.3 and standard deviation 9.01. Majority (63.4 percent) of the respondents had favorable perception, 31.9 percent had moderately favorable perception and only 4.7 percent had unfavorable perception towards utilizing nutrient sources for IPNS. Education, training received, access to manure, participation in IPNS practice, daily time use, credit received, organizational participation, utilization of information source, production orientation, planning orientation, attitude towards use of agro-chemicals and environmental pollution awareness of the farmers showed positive and significant relationship with their perception of utilizing nutrient sources for IPNS.