The Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) has a long history of providing extension services to Bangladesh's crop farmers. This study attempted to explore the extent of problems that crop farmers faced regarding acquiring the extension services provided by DAE. This study was conducted in three villages of Gauripur Upazila (sub-district) in Mymensingh district, Bangladesh. A face-to-face interview was conducted with 100 sampled farmers for the data collection on a pre-tested and structured interview schedule. The key variable, named as the extent of problems was measured using a 4-point rating scale. Both enter and step-wise regression models were employed on the data. Results indicated that half of the respondents faced a moderate level of problems while 40% faced a high level of problems. The extension workers' poor communication skill was the most critical issue, followed by insufficient resources and maintaining contact with resource-rich farmers as perceived by the respondents. Crop farmers' education, perceived economic return, the experience of participating in extension activities, training, and fatalism were significantly associated with the problems faced by them. Education, perceived economic return, the experience of participating in extension activities, and training were discovered to be essential determinants of the degree of problems related to extension services. The study identified several chances for the policymakers to address influential factors for improving crop extension services of DAE. Furthermore, improved coordination and providing crop farmers with need-based training and resources may help mitigate the identified issues.
26 August 2021 in Asian Journal of Education and Social Studies
Around the world, social media sites are becoming a part of people's daily life. The students are also getting involved in these sites for several purposes. So, it is very important to understand the effect of social media on university students. In recent years, researchers around the world have taken this issue as a topic of great interest. Considering the social impact of this issue, the current research was conducted at the Bangladesh Agricultural University, Bangladesh. Data were collected from 200 students using the google forms questionnaire and the time of data collection was July-September, 2020. The findings of the study suggest that Facebook was the most used social media by the respondents, followed by YouTube. The majority of the students use social media for communication purposes and 46% of respondents were found to use these sites for 41-55 hours per week. The majority of them had moderate mood after using social media. In addition, the study also finds that students use social media to gather academic information, they consider this information as reliable. Respondents were also found to think that social media sites are saving their time as well as effort. Finally, the study identifies a negative relation between academic performance and time spent on social media. The findings of this paper may be utilized to provide practical strategies for improving students’ educational success through maintaining a balance between recreation, knowledge sharing, and academic performance. It is recommended for the students to utilize their time wisely and not making social media the only means of recreation.
20 November 2024 in World Development Sustainability
Agriculture is responsible for giving rise to huge quantities of degradable and non-degradable waste during various farming activities. A deeper understanding of farmers’ perceptions and levels of agro-waste management capacity is essential in developing locally accepted strategies for agro-waste management. This study was framed to analyze vegetable farmers’ perception and capacity for Bangladesh’s 3Rs waste management concept (reduce, reuse, and recycle). A total of 125 farmers were selected following a stratified proportionate random sampling technique and interviewed using a structured questionnaire. The findings of this study indicate that intercultural and harvesting practices produce a large variety of bio-degradable and non-degradable waste materials compared to other stages of vegetable production and marketing of produce. The overall score showed that the vegetable farmers’ have a medium (39.2%) to high (60.8%) perception of the 3Rs waste management concept, but they possessed a low perception of recycling agro-waste. However, the overall capacity score for 3Rs waste management was low (67.2%) to medium (31.2%), indicating a low capacity of vegetable growers to recycle different types of waste. This study offers suggestions for a development program that includes special training facilities for vegetable growers to strengthen their waste management capabilities based on the 3Rs concept.