Association of Selected Independent Variables with Perception of Harmful Effects of Using Agrochemicals in Rice Production

The perception of harmful effects of using agrochemicals in rice production by the farmers needs to be studied to reduce the use of agrochemicals in the field. Hence, the study was undertaken with the objective to find out the association of selected independent variables with the perception of harmful effects of using agrochemicals in rice cultivation. The study was conducted at Anupampur and Nimpara blocks of Charghat upazila under Rajshahi district of Bangladesh. Data were collected from randomly selected 266 farmers (25%) of the two selected blocks through personal interview during January to June 2010. The study revealed that the farmers’ education, family education, knowledge on agrichemicals use, training experience, annual income, economic status, cosmopoliteness, organisational participation, extension media exposure, innovativeness, risk orientation and level of aspiration were positively and significantly correlated with the perception of harmful effects of using agrochemicals at 5 and 1% level of significance, whereas their age, family size, daily time use, farm size, family labour force and farming experience were non-significantly correlated with their perception of harmful effects of using agrochemicals. The study indicates that out of 12 correlated independent variables, 7 variables taken together explained, to the extent of 71.62%, the variation on the perception of harmful effects of using agrochemicals. Thus, the results implied that these seven independent variables would account for significant amount of variation on the perception of harmful effects of using agrochemicals in rice production.