FARMERS' KNOWLEDGE ON ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION DUE TO USE OF AGRO-CHEMICALS

Abstract

The purposes of the study were to identify the Farmers' knowledge on environmental degradation due to use of agro-chemicals and to determine their selected characteristics, namely education, farm size, annual income, family size, farming experience, organizational participation, cosmopoliteness, innovativeness, and extension contact. The study also explored the relationship between the selected characteristics of the farmers and their knowledge on environmental degradation due to use of agro-chemicals. The study was conductec among the farmers of three villages of Kashkarara union of p :mdanga Upazila under Chuadanga district. Data were collected ['rum a sample of randomly selected 118 farmers out of a total population of 987. The data were collected through personal interview by using an interview schedule during the period from the 6" April to 5th May; 2010. Appropriate scales were developed in order to measure the variables. Pearson's Product Moment Correlation Co-efficient (r) was computed to examine the relationship between the concerned variables. Findings revealed that over half (60.17 percent) of the respondents had low level of knowledge on environmental degradation due to use of agro-chemicals as compared to 33.90 percent medium and 5.93 percent high knowledge. Correlation analysis indicated that seven characteristics of the farmers namely education, farm size, annual income, organizational participation; Cosmopoliteness, innovativeness, and extension contact had sigjtiflcant positive relationships with their knowledge on environmental degradation due to use of agro-chemicals. On the other hand, family size and farming VII' experience of the respondents had no relationship with their knowledge on environmental degradation due to use of agro-chernicals.