FARMERS’ PERCEPTION ON EUCALYPTUS TREE PLANTATION AS CROPLAND AGROFORESTRY: A CASE STUDY OF BOGURA DISTRICT

Abstract

Eucalyptus is one of the most extensively planted trees in Bangladesh as well as in the world. The purpose of this study was to determine farmers perception about Eucalyptus tree cultivation as cropland agroforestry and explore the contribution of the selected characteristics of the farmers. The selected characteristics were age, education, family size, total land area, income sources, training exposure, duration of involvement with eucalyptus cultivation, land use pattern and farmer’s opinion on prospect of eucalyptus tree cultivation. Data were gathered from randomly selected 60 farmers of fifteen villages of three upazilas named Bogura Sadar, Kahaloo and Sherpur upazila under Bogura District by using interview schedule. For harmonious representation from each village, 60 farmers were selected by using a standard formula. Respondents were selected by using stratified random sampling method. Stepwise Multiple Regression was used to examine the contribution of the selected characteristics of the farmers. The findings revealed that majority of the respondents (40%) of the farmers were felt in poorly favorable perception whereas 28.3 percent in moderately favorable perception and 31.7 percent in highly favorable perception towards eucalyptus tree cultivation. Hence, more than half (60%) of farmers had medium to high perception towards eucalyptus tree cultivation. Stepwise Multiple Regression exposed that farmer’s opinion on prospect of eucalyptus tree cultivation, training exposure, total land area and education had significant contribution on farmer’s perception about eucalyptus tree cultivation. The R2 value indicates the four independent variables collectively contribute (53.3 %) of the total variation on farmers’ perception about eucalyptus tree cultivation. It may be concluded that farmers’ perception about eucalyptus tree cultivation will be increased with the increase of training exposure and educational level of the respondents.