DETERMINANTS OF SUBMERGENCE-TOLERANT RICE VARIETIES ADOPTION IN A FLOOD-PRONE AREA OF BANGLADESH

Many people of Bangladesh are forced to cultivate in low-lying areas due to population pressure and land insufficiency. To improve the situation, different national and international institutes invented submergence-tolerant rice varieties that can withstand water-logging conditions for up to 1-2 weeks and also provide high yield. This study was undertaken in a flood-prone district named Jamalpur, and the main objective was to determine the factors affecting the adoption of submergence-tolerant rice varieties. To attain the objective, Dewanganj and Islampur upazilas were selected purposively, which are the most flood affected areas under Jamalpur district, and therefore, the intensity of submergence-tolerant rice variety growing farmers are also available there. Prior to data collection, a well-designed semi-structured questionnaire was prepared and converted to ODK app. Data were collected through trained enumerators from randomly selected 222 farmers using a pre-prepared list collected from the office of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), of which 108 were adopters and 114 were non-adopters. Two Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) were also conducted for data supplementation and validation. Apart from descriptive presentation, data were analyzed through t-test and binary logit model. Findings revealed that there is no statistically significant difference between the mean of socioeconomic variables such as experience, age, education, and farm size across adopters and non-adopters. Logit model results explained that farmers’ perceptions of the variety as stress-tolerant and seed availability from the dealers significantly positively affect the adoption of stress-tolerant varieties. Besides, land type, access to extension agents, and training positively influence adoption. FGDs also reported that variety demonstrations, information received from the agricultural office, training, and farmers' past experience are the key determinants of adopting new varieties. Therefore, it can be concluded from this study that the aforesaid variables should be emphasized and considered for the expansion of submergence-tolerant rice varieties in Bangladesh.