Variables Contributing to Farmers’ Perception on Mustard Cultivation in Between Aman and Boro Rice
The paper examines the factors associated with farmers’ perception on mustard cultivation in between Aman and Boro rice in some selected areas and also ascertains the factors contribute to the farmers perceptions. Data were collected following random sampling method from a sample of 110 farmers out of a total population of 550 residing in four villages namely, Sadipur of Jessore, Baro Bamandaha of Jhenaidaha, Kalidaspur of Chuadanga and Purba Abdalpur of Kushtia districts using an interview schedule during 09 September to 03 October 2013. Five point Likert-type scales were used to measure farmers’ perception on this issue. The overall perception of farmers in the study areas revealed that majority of the farmers (59 percent) had high perception and 41 percent having medium perception towards mustard cultivation in between Aman and Boro rice. Test of hypotheses indicated that ten variables out of thirteen namely, education, farm size, annual income, training, extension contact, cosmopoliteness, knowledge, risk orientation, suitability of technology and profitability of technology were positively correlated with the perception of farmers on mustard cultivation in between Aman and Boro rice. Results of stepwise regression depicted that only three variables contributed positively to the farmers’ perception which were profitability of technology, knowledge on mustard cultivation and risk orientation. These three variables combinedly explained 71.1 percent of the variance.