The agricultural extension contact in Bangladesh

Abstract

The impact of agricultural extension contact on agricultural income has been conducted. The objectives of the study were to examine the actual benefits of agricultural extension services on productivity through an agricultural production function and if there are benefits for farmers to determine the type of farmers who benefited from the services. Fifty samples were collected from two sub districts of the Gazipur district in Bangladesh. The selection of the study sites and collection of the sample were done purposively. It is clarified from the study that extension services have significant contribution to raise agricultural income per unit of farm land. Results were derived through regression analysis. The results show that the contact coefficient of three times and above is higher (0.353) compared to the contact coefficient one and two times (0.234). It is observed that for a successful introduction of agricultural extension contacts in the country socio economic factors such as education of farmers, age and number of adult family members, ratio of agricultural income to total income should be taken into consideration.

Agricultural Extension Contact and Farmer’s Income in Bangladesh

“…By using that index, it is possible to convert the specific quantities of products into given amounts of money to add up; therefore it represents a considerable analytical benefit. The method of settling the type of variables from which the index is determined, expected to be discussed (Haq, 2012).…”

“…In Bangladesh Training & Visit (T&V) system, farmlands are divided into blocks and the T&V workers target the representative farmers of the different blocks, who are referred to as "contact farmers" (Haq, 2012). Although the T&V workers can directly get in touch with ordinary farmers, they mainly train the contact farmers, who afterwards transmit the training results to the other farmers, in a progressive system (ibid).…”

“…Most of the farmers of Bangladesh are either illiterate or unskilled. Thus with the knowledge derived from extension services through extension contact, farm operators may increase their income (Haq, 2012;Owens et al, 2003). Explanations of the selection background of other explanatory variables can be found in releveant literatures (Haq, 2004(Haq, , 2012.…”

“…This means that agricultural extension services in Bangladesh still fail to reach its ultimate goal, which is to increase the farmers' socio economic betterment. In the broadest sense, extension impacts have been associated with improvements in productivity (Haq, 2012) and household income (Xuan et al, 2014). While there is a large literature dealing with agriculture extension issues in developing countries, rigorous impact evaluations of agriculture extension interventions are less common (Waddington et al, 2010).…”

“…Many of them deal with training and visit system, participatory demonstration and training extension system, challenging facing extension agents and role of extension service in commercialization (Hasanullah, 1994;Rayner and Bruening, 1996). Fewer numbers of impacts studies are available (Haq, 2011(Haq, , 2012Owens et al, 2003;Birkhaeuser and Evenson, 1991;Evenson and Mwabu, 2001) but the focuses of those studies concentrated on the role of extension in raising crop productivity in terms of physical quantity and monetary value. Hardly any evidence exists about the impact of extension services on the overall income of farmers with minor exceptions (IAPP 2013;FFSA 2011;Xuan et al, 2014).…”