ASSESSMENT OF POTATO LOSSES AS PERCEIVED BY THE FARMERS

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the losses of potato as perceived by the farmers and explore the contribution of the selected characteristics of the potato growers on assessment of losses of potato in various phases. Potato growers were selected from four villages. Data were collected from 100 potato growers of Boragari, Domar and Panga-Matukpur union under domar upazila of Nilphamari district during 25 December, 2015. Descriptive statistics and stepwise multiple regression analysis were used to examine the th November, 2015 to 25 xii

th contribution of the selected characteristics of the potato growers on losses of potato. The findings revealed that 41 percent of the respondents experienced high loss, while 19 percent had medium loss and 40 percent experienced low loss. Among the selected characteristics, organizational participation, level of education, and problem faced by the potato farmers had significant contribution to the losses of potato. The R 2 value of the 3 independent variables formed the equation contributing to 39.3 percent of the total variables to assess the losses of potato. It was found from Problem Faced Index (PFI) that farmers faced higher problems in ‘lower market price’ followed by ‘diseases problem’ and ‘insect attack’