ASSESSMENT OF LOSSES OF JACKFRUIT AS PERCEIVED BY THE FARMERS

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to assess the losses of jackfruit as perceived by the farmers and explore the relationships of the selected characteristics of the jackfruit farmers with the losses of jackfruit as perceived by them. The selected characteristics were age, level of education, jackfruit land size, number of jackfruit trees, annual income from jackfruit, experience in jackfruit cultivation, knowledge on jackfruit cultivation and problem faced by the farmers. Data were gathered from 120 jackfruit farmers of six villages such as Kachina and Honpara ofBhalukaUpazilla, Donua and Nagar haowlaofSreepurUpazilla and Naoghata and SristigharofShibpurUpazilla under Mymensing, Gazipur and Narsingdi districts respectively by using a structured interview schedule. For harmonious representation from each village 10 percent sample were drawn following stratified random sampling method. Appropriate scales were formulated in order to assess the concerned variables. SPSS software was used to probe the data and Pearson Product Moment Correlation Co-efficient was applied to examine the relationship amongthe variables.The findings revealed that the highest proportion of the farmers (71.7 percent) perceived medium loss, while 17.5 percentperceived high loss and10.8 percent of themperceived low loss in jackfruit production. Hence, overwhelming majority (89.2 percent) of the respondents perceived medium to high loss in jackfruit cultivation. The statistical analysis exposed that annual income from jackfruit, experience in jackfruit cultivation and knowledge on jackfruit cultivation of the jackfruit growers had significant negative relationship with the losses of jackfruit while problem faced by the jackfruit farmers hadsignificant positive relationship with the losses of jackfruit as perceived by them.