ADOPTION OF SELECTED WHEAT VARIETIES BY THE FARMERS IN SAINTARA UNION UNDER DINAJPUR DISTRICT

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to determine the extent of adoption of selected wheat varieties by the farmers and to explore the relationships between farmers’ characteristics and their adoption of selected wheat varieties. Saintara union under Chirirbandar upazila of Dinajpur district was the locale of the study. Data were collected by using interview schedule from 80 farmers selected randomly during 10

th October to 15 th November, 2006. The finding revealed that more than half (55%) of the growers had medium adoption, 23.8 percent had low adoption and 21.2 percent had high adoption of selected wheat varieties. Computed ‘r’ values indicate that selected characteristics of the farmers, namely, training received, cosmopoliteness, attitude towards wheat cultivation, innovativeness, communication behaviour and knowledge on wheat cultivation had significant positive relationship with the adoption of selected wheat varieties. Age, education, farm size and annual family income had no significant relationships with the adoption of selected wheat varieties. More than half (56.2 percent) of the growers faced medium problems compared to 16.3 and 27.5 percent of low and high problem respectively regarding adoption of selected wheat varieties. Ten problems indicated by the growers, which they confronted related to wheat cultivation. Five major problems in descending order of Problem Confrontation Index were: (1) Non availability of wheat seeds in the market, (2) High price of fertilizers, (3) Lack of Agricultural machineries and tools for wheat cultivation, (4) Non availability of pesticides and (5) Scarcity of fertilizer supply in time .