Farmers Attitude towards Safe Food Production in Bangladesh: A Study in Bogra District

Abstract

Safe food production is a holistic way of agriculture, which tries to bridge the widening gap between man and nature. The present study was to determine the attitude of farmers towards safe food production, to explore the relationship between selected characteristics of the farmers and their attitude towards safe food production, to investigate farmer’s awareness on safe food production and to find out the constraints of safe food production in Bangladesh. Data were collected using interview schedule from a sample of 100 farmers of two upazilas of Bogra District. The duration of the study spanned a period of 6 months from October 2016 to March 2017. Descriptive statistical parameters and Pearson's Product Moment Correlation Coefficient (r) was used in this study as data analyzing tool. SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) software was used for data management and analysis. Nearly all the respondents (92.4%) have a favourable and highly favourable attitude towards safe food production. Only 4.6% farmers have an unfavourable attitude toward safe food production. The level of awareness about safe food production is low, and did reveal that both farmers and consumers are aware of the toxic effect of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Lack of knowledge and understanding of the principles of safe food production was the highest constraints faced by the farmers. The proper ways should be taken to overcome the problems. Farmer's level of education, farm size, extension media contact, agricultural training received and farming experience of the respondent showed significant positive and Constrains faced producing safe food showed significant negative relationships with their attitude towards safe food production. So these characteristics should be taken into consideration. Due to increasing amount of using pesticides safe food production should be increased and it might be possible by the favorable attitude of the farmers towards safe food.