EFFECTIVENESS OF MASS MEDIA IN ADOPTION OF RICE PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGIES

Abstract

The main objectives of this study were to determine the extent of effectiveness of mass media and explore the relationship between the selected characteristics of the farmers and their effectiveness of mass media in adoption of rice production technology. The selected characteristics were age, education, family size, farm size, annual family income, wealth ownership, organizational participation, innovativeness, attitude towards modern technology and agricultural knowledge. Data were collected from two villages of Pirganj Upazila under Thakurgaon district, through using a structured personal interview schedule. For proportionate representation from each village 20% ( 110) sample were drawn following stratified sampling method Appropriate scales were developed in order to measure the concerned variables A statistical software package named SPSS was used to analyze the data and Karl Pearson Correlation Co-efficient were used to test the relationship between the independent and dependent variables. The findings revealed that 48.18 % respondents belonged to medium effective category while 37.27% highly effective category and 14.55% low effective category Thus, about 85% respondents opined that mass media had medium to highly effective in adoption of rice production technology in this study area The statistical analysis aJso revealed that farmers' education, wealth ownership, organizational participation, innovativeness and agricultural knowledge had positive and highly significant relationship with their effectiveness of mass media in adoption of rice production technology. However, age, farm size, family size, annual family income and attitude towards modern technology of the farmers had no significant relationship with their effectiveness of mass media in adoption of rice production technology by the farmers in this study area.