http://localhost:8080/handle/123456789/2640 2026-04-18T16:31:37Z 2026-04-18T16:31:37Z MIA, MD. ABU TOUHID http://localhost:8080/handle/123456789/5257 2025-03-12T06:58:02Z 2020-01-01T00:00:00Z

COASTAL FARMERS’ KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICE REGARDING CLIMATE SMART AGRICULTURE MIA, MD. ABU TOUHID Climate smart agriculture (CSA) aims to improve food security, help communities adapt to climate change and contribute to climate change mitigation by adopting appropriate practices. The basic premises of the knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) surveys are that knowledge forms attitude, and that both knowledge and attitude are the building blocks for practice. The study therefore aims to assess the extent of knowledge, attitude and practice of farmers regarding climate smart agriculture and to explore the contributions of the selected characteristics of the coastal farmers to their knowledge, attitude and practice. Data were collected using an interview schedule from 354 coastal farmers under 3 districts namely, Khulna, Bagerhat and Satkhira through Multistage Random Sampling Method during December, 2021 to March, 2022. To explore the contribution of the predictor variables to the outcome variables, full model regression analysis was employed. It was found that about 14.13% of the farmers had poor knowledge, 75.14% had medium-level knowledge and 10.73% had high level knowledge on CSA. The highest proportion (61.01%) of the farmer had medium favourable attitude towards CSA as compared to 18.65% and 20.34% having low favourable and high favourable attitude towards CSA respectively. About 57.91% of the coastal farmers had medium practice followed by 22.88% had high and 19.21% had low practice of CSA. Among the 19 identified CSA practices “using of thread pipe/plastic pipe for irrigation” ranked first and indicated highest extent of use by the coastal farmers. The 2 position in the rank order was “cultivation of salinity resistant and high yielding crop varieties,”. Farmers‟ education, annual agricultural income, extension contact, decision making ability, benefit obtained from CSA had significant positive contributions and problem faced in CSA had negative contribution to their knowledge on CSA. Again, farmers‟ education, annual agricultural income, extension contact, training exposure, access to market and benefit obtained from CSA had significant positive contribution whereas farm size had negative contributions to their attitude towards CSA. Furthermore, farmers‟ education, annual agricultural income, extension contact, training exposure and benefit obtained from CSA had positive significant contribution to their practice of CSA. The topmost problem of coastal farmers was associated with economic problem; „higher cost of inputs‟ ranked 1 st and „low price of produced crops‟ ranked 2 xvii nd nd . For the fully implementation of CSA requires solving associated problems and making available appropriate technologies to the farmers. A Dissertation submitted to the faculty of Agriculture, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION AND INFORMATION SYSTEM

2020-01-01T00:00:00Z ISLAM, MOHAMMAD RAFIQUL http://localhost:8080/handle/123456789/4834 2023-03-27T06:36:44Z 2021-01-01T00:00:00Z

IMPACT OF SMALL ENTERPRISE LOAN PROGRAMME OF PALLI DARIDRO BIMOCHON FOUNDATION ON THE BENEFICIARIES SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ISLAM, MOHAMMAD RAFIQUL The purposes of the study were to assess the impact of Small Enterprise Loan Programme (SELP) of Palli Daridro Bimochon Foundation (PDBF) on the socio-economic development of the beneficiaries and to explore the contribution of the selected characteristics of the SELP beneficiaries to the impact of SELP on their socio-economic development. The study was conducted in Rajbari sadar under Rajbari district, Kaliakair upazlia under Gazipur district, Dhanbari upazila under Tangail district and Ramgati upazila in Lakshmipur district in Bangladesh. A survey method was used to collect primary data during October 2021 to March 2022. A total of 838 SELP beneficiaries of four upazilas under 55 districts of PDBF constituted the population of the study. Face to face interview was conducted to collect relevant data from the proportionate randomly selected 271 respondents. Twelve selected characteristics of SELP beneficiaries were considered as the independent variables. Impact of SELP of PDBF was the dependent variable of the research. The survey revealed that majority (69.40 percent) of the respondents increased their socio-economic condition which was ranged from medium to high level compared to 30.60 percent of the respondents was at low level. Twelve independent variables combinedly explained 53.70% of the total variation on the socio-economic development through SELP of PDBF. Regression analysis indicated that education (0.391), satisfaction towards loan received condition (0.215), age (0.212), savings deposit (0.139), length of involvement (0.129) and attitude towards SELP of PDBF (0.107) had positive and significant influence on their socio-economic development through SELP of PDBF. Based on the Standardized Problem Faced Index (SPFI) among the problem items, „high rate of interest‟ was ranked 1st, „inadequate loan amount as per demand‟ was ranked 2nd and 3rd was „product duplication in the same business area‟. Fist, 2nd and 3rd suggestions by the respondents were to „provide low interest rate‟, „adequate credit volume‟ and „arranging skill based training to small entrepreneurs‟ respectively. The findings may contribute to improve SELP beneficiaries‟ socio-economic condition through more effective policies. A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Agriculture, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka, Bangladesh in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION AND INFORMATION SYSTEM

2021-01-01T00:00:00Z MOONMOON, MAHBUBA http://localhost:8080/handle/123456789/3769 2022-04-20T06:54:23Z 2021-06-01T00:00:00Z

FARMERS’ SATISFACTION ON THE ADVISORY SERVICES OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION MOONMOON, MAHBUBA Agricultural advisory services have a tremendous potential to improve agricultural productivity and increase farmers‘ income through transfer and facilitation of knowledge, skills and technologies. Assessing farmers‘ satisfaction on agricultural advisory services is essential for developing agricultural extension programs that comply with farmers‘ needs. This study sought to assess farmers‘ satisfaction on the advisory services of Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), to describe the selected predictors of the farmers related to their satisfaction, to explore the contribution of the selected predictors of the farmers to their satisfaction on DAE advisory services to identify the areas for improvement. To measure farmers‘ satisfaction a scale was developed based on 35 items of satisfaction (25 on Technical services and 10 on Functional services of DAE). Data were collected from randomly selected 358 farmers from eight (8) upazillas of four (4) regions (Dhaka, Khulna, Sylhet and Rajshahi) of Bangladesh by using a pre-tested interview schedule during the period of 1 st August, 2021 to 30 th November, 2021. Descriptive statistics and step wise multiple regression, path analysis were used to analyze the data obtained. Findings indicated that majority (79.1%) of the farmers had medium satisfaction on overall satisfaction of the advisory services of DAE. Farmers also had medium satisfaction on both technical (74.6%) and functional (82.7%) services of DAE. Out of 35 items of satisfaction farmers were highly satisfied on five (05) items, moderately satisfied on 24 items and low satisfied on six (06) items. Step wise multiple regression analysis indicated that farmers‘ extension contact, innovativeness, farming experience and education had significant contribution to their satisfaction on the advisory services of DAE. The standardized regression co-efficient of these four (4) variables formed the equation and were significant. It might be assumed that whatever contribution was there, it was due to these four (04) variables that combinedly explained 28.1 percent of the total variation. Path analysis indicated that out of these four (04) contributory predictors of the farmers extension contact (0.933) had the highest total indirect effect followed by innovativeness (0.821), education (0.214) and farming experience (0.09) on farmers‘ satisfaction on advisory services of DAE. The indirect effects of each of these four (04) variables were channeled through other three variables. Attempt was taken to seek suggestions from the farmers to improve their satisfaction on DAE Advisory services. DAE need to address the low and moderate satisfied items to increase the satisfaction of the farmers as suggested by them. A Dissertation Submitted to the faculty of Agriculture Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION AND INFORMATION SYSTEM SEMESTER: JANUARY-JUNE 2021

2021-06-01T00:00:00Z MALEK, MD. ABDUL http://localhost:8080/handle/123456789/3768 2022-04-20T06:50:29Z 2021-01-01T00:00:00Z

EFFECTIVENESS OF IMAGE-BASED PLANT DISEASE DEECTION SYSTEM MALEK, MD. ABDUL Image-based Plant Disease Detection Systems (IPDDSs) are increasingly used in agriculture for detecting plant diseases. A good number of models and techniques are used for this purpose. Usually, the effectiveness of these models and techniques is studied from developers’ perspectives. This study intended to find out the effectiveness of IPDDS in detecting plant diseases from the users’ perspectives. A total of 384 IPDDS users across Bangladesh were selected randomly and interviewed during the period from May 01, 2021 to September 30, 2021. Major findings indicated that the majority of the users (77.90%) perceived IPDDS as moderately effective while 19.50% of the users perceived IPDDS as highly effective, and 2.60% perceived it as less effective in detecting plant diseases and getting plant disease-related services. Among the effectiveness dimensions ‘user satisfaction’ ranked first followed by ‘system accuracy’, ‘user friendliness’, ‘content quality’, ‘offline usability’, and ‘device responsiveness’ based on the Average Standardized Effectiveness Index (ASEI). According to the descending order of the Standardized Effectiveness Index (SEI), ‘on-time service’ ranked first followed by ‘time needed for getting service’, ‘service cost’, ‘delivery of the service’, ‘ease of the system’, etc. Step-wise multiple regression showed that out of 14 selected characteristics of the IPDDS users, four (4) characteristics namely, ‘time saved’, ‘knowledge on plant disease management’, ‘benefits obtained by using IPDDS’, and ‘use of ICT’ had significant positive contribution and ‘obstacles faced in using IPDDS’ had significant negative contribution to their perceived effectiveness of IPDDS. These five (5) variables explained 34.5 percent of the total variation in the effectiveness of IPDDS. Each of the Five (5) variables had indirect effect on the effectiveness of IPDDS through the other four (4) variables. According to the descending order of Standard Benefit Index (SBI), ‘reduce time for detecting plant disease’ ranked first followed by ‘increase service accessibility’, ‘increase service quality’, ‘increase respondents’ knowledge’, etc. According to the descending order of Standardized Obstacle Index (SOI) ‘illiteracy’, ranked first followed by ‘inability of disease detection at an early stage’, ‘unavailability of the smart phone’, ‘ICT phobia’, ‘inadequate extension service to support the use of IPDDS’, etc. Frequently suggested suggestions by the users included covering all stages of the disease, providing farmers’ training, introducing off-line system, comparison system, voice interactive system, intelligent system, image uploading option, etc. Based on the suggestions of the users and the findings of the research, a functional model for improving DPPIS is proposed. A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Agriculture Sher- e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka, In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION & INFORMATION SYSTEM SEMESTER: JANUARY- JUNE, 2021

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