Cost-effective extension strategies are needed to promote widespread adoption of agricultural technologies in developing countries. Integrated pest management (IPM) practices, for example, can offer economic, health, and environmental benefits but remain largely underused. This study evaluates the current IPM dissemination program implemented by the Bangladesh Department of Agricultural Extension and uses a linear programming model to examine alternative strategies to improve IPM adoption. Results suggest that technology transfer programs may increase their impact by reallocating funding from intensive but costly interpersonal communication methods (i.e., farmer field schools) to less intensive methods (i.e., mass media and field days) that reach broader audiences.

Human Capital or HC plays a significant role in the field of economic growth. Advancement on human capital and knowledge-based economy are of core importance for developing countries. Active representatives of capital accumulation are the people and utilizing natural resources for contributing to the socioeconomic growth of the country. Evaluation of HC helps organizations to concern about their present position taking Human Capital Management into account. The core goal of this work is to measure performance of each organization individually based on criteria and rating the individual depending on the measurements. The technique used in this paper is based on the integration of "AHP" and "TOPSIS" as "AHP-TOPSIS" Hybrid method. The Analytic Hierarchy Process determines criteria's weight and significance of the indicators or alternatives. The final ranking of HC is done by TOPSIS method considering the importance of the indicators. The proposed MCDM approach is effective, compatible and reliable considering the goal of the study.

Background: The indigenous people are socially, linguistically, and scientifically diverse. A global trend leads us to the notion that primitive women are somewhat less privileged than non-tribal mothers around the world. This problem also sounds true in the context of Bangladesh. A competent birth attendant at birth is the most important intervention for pregnant women. However, the use of skilled birth attendants has been widely discriminated among tribal and non-tribal women. Objective: This study assesses SBA acceptance and utilization barriers during childbirth among Bangladesh tribal women. Method: A quantitative approach was employed, and the data were collected via questionnaires. Descriptive statistics, Chi-square ( ) χ 2 tests and Binary Logistic Regression were used to analyze the frequency, relationship, and to determine tribal women seeking the services of SBA during childbirth. Results: The results showed that the highest prevalence of delivery (66%) among tribal women occurred at home. 46% of the mothers gave birth to their children with the assistance of a skilled birth attendant, of which 12% of them were at home, and 34% were in the hospital. The remaining 54% of mothers gave birth to their babies with the assistance of a traditional midwife. Results also show that socio-economic conditions, education of women, distance from health care facilities, family planning, husbands’ occupation, and media exposure are the key determinants in pursuing SBA. Conclusion: The study revealed a low prevalence of utilizing skilled birth attendance among tribal women of Bangladesh. Hence, upgrading socio-economic conditions and boosting the education levels of tribal women, ensuring easy access to the media, and launching short-term training to train typical birth attendants are the key recommendations for seeking expert birth attendants.

Objectives: Bangladesh is a country which is known for its flora and fauna in South Asia. Despite embracing safe motherhood and adhering to the advice of the International Community, with remarkable progress towards achieving the maternal mortality Millennium Development Goals (MDG) 5 goal, its development contrasts with the tribal people who reside in the remote hilly regions of the country. Therefore, this study was intended to identify the predictors that affect secure maternity practices among the tribal women of Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), Bangladesh. Materials and Methods: This study adopted a cross-sectional approach and was performed with live births of 556 married tribal females aged 15 to 49 years from three districts of CHT when the age of their children was not more than 1 year. Semi-structured questionnaires were used to interview the subjects. Finally, the statistical analysis was conducted with SPSS20 to estimate the odds ratios and strength of the relationship between the variables at P<0.10. Results: The results of the study revealed that safe maternity practices are not the standard in CHT. Only 12.7% met the standard of maternity services in CHT. At the time of pregnancy, more than 2/3 of females received no prenatal care. The results further demonstrated that only 34% of the women gave birth to the baby at a hospital while 66% of the births occurred at home and over 50% were assisted by untrained traditional midwives. Conclusions: In general, the results revealed that socioeconomic, demographic, cultural, and behavioral factors affected the adoption of maternal health care services (MHCS) by the women of CHT. Therefore, improving the economic conditions by introducing ‘eco-friendly’ industries can help enhance the uptake of safe motherhood practices.

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