ADOPTION OF ECO-FRIENDLY AGRICULTURAL TECHNOLOGIES IN BANGLADESH: ROLE OF ACCESS TO FINANCE

Abstract

As a disaster prone country the farmers of Bangladesh imprudently use excessive pesticides and chemical fertilizer products which poses several environmental threats e.g., ecological imbalances, soil squalor, biodiversity loss, and ecological devastation and therefore make the country’s food security at stake. Considering global climate change and country’s environment issues eco-friendly agricultural technologies (EAT) gaining its popularity among the farmers. However, lack of capital often hinder the adoption of EAT. Therefore, this study was conducted to identify whether access to finance increase the likelihood and level of adoption of EAT in Bangladesh. A total of 270 vegetable farmers were selected randomly from two districts i.e., Cumilla and Narsingdi. Face-to-face interviews were conducted to collect necessary data. The collected data were then analyzed by using the Binary Logit, Poisson and Tobit regression. The findings suggested that access to finance positively affected adoption of EAT while the distance of bank and NGO from the vegetable farmers house negatively influenced the likelihood of adopting EAT. Moreover, access to finance increase the level of adoption of EAT. Besides, location, education, mobile phone usage, mass media usage and membership of IPM club positively and significantly affected the EAT adoption. In terms of policy perspective, the likelihood and level of EAT adoption can be increased through ensuring easy access to finance, increasing access to extension services and familiarizing EAT practices among the farmers by mobile and mass media.