Adoption of Hybrid Rice in Bangladesh: Farm Level Experience

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to understand the farmers' response to hybrid rice over the last decade. To achieve this, we used the "diffusion of innovation" model as developed by Rogers. The specific objectives guiding the study were to: i) describe the socio-economic and demographic characteristics of the farmers; ii) survey the varieties of hybrid rice cultivated over the last decade and identify the best performers; iii) assess the extent of adoption of hybrid rice in Bangladesh; iii) investigate the influence of selected characteristics in influencing farmers' decisions on adopting hybrid rice. The study was conducted in five regions of Bangladesh. A concurrent embedded design using a cross sectional survey was employed. The population of this study consisted of rice growers of the boro season who were responsible for farming decisions. A multistage stratified random sampling design was employed in selecting the sample of 425 farmers. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews using a pre-tested and back translated questionnaire. Data confirmed that the overall extent of adoption of hybrid during the period of 2001-2011 boro seasons was relatively low in the sample areas. Logistic regression results after fitting the full model of eleven selected predictive variables on farmers' decisions in adopting hybrid rice showed that education, annual family income, communication exposure, and attitude towards hybrid rice made significant contributions to farmers' decisions in adopting hybrid rice. There is an enormous potential for improving the level of adoption of hybrid rice in Bangladesh.

Farmers' perception of risk in cultivating hybrid rice in Bangladesh

“…By the 2008-09 crop year, only about 8% of the rice area was planted with different rice hybrids (Janaiah & Xie, 2010). On average, farmers brought 37.84% of their potential rice farming area for cultivation of hybrid rice over the period of 2001-2011 in the sample areas (Shah, Grant, & Stocklmayer, 2014). They concluded that there is an enormous potential for improving the level of adoption of hybrid rice in Bangladesh.…”

What Motivates Rice Farmers to Adopt Hybrid Rice Technology in Assam, India?

“…High cost of seed which was also needed to be purchased every year, low price of the hybrid rice per quintal compared to other rice varieties, overlooking the higher production, infestation of the pest and disease were also among the reported problems. Severe infestation of insects and pests and lack of irrigation facilities were the problems faced by farmers revealed in the findings of Singh et al, (2011);Shah et al, (2014b) and (Dasgupta & Roy, 2014).…”

Adopt to adapt? Farmers’ varietal innovation adoption in a context of climate change. The case of sunflower hybrids in France

“…Risk aversion is identified as a factor of VI adoption by both Fisher and Kandiwa (2014) and Shah et al (2016). Risk aversion can stem from households' needs for subsistence food, which imply growing more local varieties that are culturally appropriated for food consumption (Smale and Heisey, 1993;Smale et al, 1995;Mariano et al, 2012;Shah et al, 2014Shah et al, , 2016. In this regard, adverse events, such as droughts, that affected crop yields during previous cultivation years have been shown to reduce the share of land cultivated with VI (Adesina and Baidu-Forson, 1995;Mariano et al, 2012;Fisher and Kandiwa, 2014).…”