Introduction
Rice is one of the major cereal crops which plays a crucial role in the world’s economy. In terms of production, rice is globally ranked 3rd position after wheat and maize (Khan et al., 2022). The reproductive stage of rice is highly sensitive to water scarcity. Drought can delay or completely constrain rice flowering (Masud et al., 2022), even water scarcity at reproduction stage can reduce significant yield by increasing the spikelet sterility (Venuprasad et al., 2008). However, Drought Tolerance Varieties (DTV) of rice have been emphasized as climate smart technology by the researchers to combat the water shortage impacts (Rahman et al., 2022; Aryal et al. 2018).
The Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) has implemented drought management measures to mitigate the impact of water scarcity in the study area by introducing drought tolerance rice varieties of both Aus (BRRI dhan 43 and BRRI dhan 55) and Aman (BRRI dhan 56 and BRRI dhan 57). Under the government initiatives of National Agricultural Training Program-II (NATP-phase-II), farmers are trained, demonstrated, and motivated for cultivation DTV of rice to overcome water scarcity problem in the dry season. It is proved that adoption of DTV of rice can play a crucial role in rice crop sector though minimizing the yield loss and improving the food security of the substantial number of small holder farmers. However, the drought tolerance rice variety is still a new initiative for the service providers (DAE) and farmers in Bangladesh. Few research studies were undertaken in drought prone region addressing only adaptation strategies (Al-amin et al., 2019; Alam, 2015) but those unpack the factors that can influence adoption of DTV varieties. The study aims to fulfill this research and knowledge gap.
Purpose and objectives
The main purpose of the study solely focuses on the adoption of drought tolerance rice varieties as well as how the socio-economic factors influence of adopting DTV of rice. The specific objectives of the study are as follows:
- to determine farmers’ adoption of DTV of rice
- to explore the socio-economic factors that influence the adoption of DTV of rice.
Research Methods
The study was conducted in Biral Upazila/sub-district at Dinajpur district in northern Bangladesh. The data was collected from the rice growing farmers. Adoption decision of drought tolerance varieties (DTV) of rice i.e., dependent variable was measured by dummy response, if the DTV of rice adopted=1, otherwise=0. When dependent variables are more than two, multivariate probit model is more suited and researchers used multivariate probit analysis (Mulwa et al., 2017). But logit model is suited for single variation analysis, so we use odd ratios of logit model which can estimate the probability of adopting DTV of rice. The data were analyzed using Stata 15.0 software.
Findings and conclusions
Results in Figure 1 showed that 77.0 % farmers were informed about drought tolerance rice varieties, and more than half of farmers (61.0 %) adopted drought tolerance varieties in rice cultivation. It means that all informed farmers do not adopt DTV of rice.
The findings of the logit probit model show that adoption of DTV of rice is influenced by at least one of the explanatory factors. There are a total of 12 explanatory variables considering the socio-economic factors that could influence the adoption of DTV of rice. The logit regression analysis shows that four factors age, family size, dependency ratio and affiliation with NGO do not show any significant relationship with the adoption of DTV of rice, while rest 7 factors significantly influence the likelihood of adopting of DTV of rice. It is observed that gender, education, income, training access, extension services, credit access and access to ICT positively affect the likelihood for the adoption of DTV of rice. This means that the probability of adopting DTV increases with the increases of these positive and significant factors. On the other hand, farm size is negatively significant with adoption of DTV of rice indicating that the probability of adopting DTV decreases with the increases of farm size.
This study concludes and suggests that different government and non-government extension services are necessary to emphasize and promote institutional services along with significant socio-economic factors as well as overcome the reasons/obstacles for non-adoption of DTV of rice.
Theoretical and practical implications and recommendations
This study provides an empirical contribution to literature by applying econometric logit models to investigate the socio-economic and institutional factors that influence farmers’ adoption of drought tolerance varieties of rice. This study further recommends that different government and non-government extension programs are necessary to promote extension services to the adoption of DTV of rice.
Keywords: Farmers Adoption, Drought Tolerance Varieties and Bangladesh
References:
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