Economic Factors Contributing to Farmers' Adoption of Selected Ecological Agricultural Practices

The main purpose of the study was to determine the adoption of selected ecological agricultural practices by the farmers and the economic factors influencing the adoption. Proshika-selected ecological farmers of six selected upazilas of Bangladesh constituted the population of the study, while a total of 144 farmers constituted the sample of the study. Data were collected from the farmers during February to August, 2006 by using a pre-tested interview schedule. Eight selected economic factors 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 (84 per cent) of the farmers had very low to low adoption of ecological nutrient management practices compared to 16 per cent medium adoption. In case of ecological pest management practices, 79 per cent of the farmers had very low to low adoption compared to 21 per cent medium adoption. In case of composite adoption of ecological agricultural practices, a great majority (86 per cent) of the farmers had very low to low adoption compared to 14 per cent medium adoption. Step-wise multiple regression analysis indicated that among the economic variables, benefit obtained from ecological agriculture of the farmers was by far the most important factor which strongly and positively influenced their adoption of selected ecological agricultural practices. Animal poultry excreta availability and commercialisation also had remarkable positive influence upon adoption of selected ecological agricultural practices by the farmers. Annual family income had negative influence on the adoption of ecological agricultural practices. The standardised partial 'b' co-efficients of these four significant independent variables formed the equation contributing to 67.8 per cent of the total variation in adoption.