Farmer’s challenges in adopting artificial insemination of cattle in Bangladesh

Abstract

Cattle are one of the indices of civilization, sources of wealth, health and prosperity for the nation. Cattle provide us food, cash as well as mechanical power. The production of cattle is low due to their poor genetic makeup, indigenous and large incidence of diseases. Artificial Insemination (AI) is the first generation reproductive biotechnology that has made a profound contribution to the genetic improvement as well as recognized breeding tool of the cattle. But the farmers in Bangladesh are yet to adopt it perfectly. For these, the principle objective of the study was to determine the extent of problems faced by the farmers in adopting AI of cattle. Problem confrontation was measured based on 18 different aspects of AI using four point scale where 3 indicates high problem, 2 medium, 1 low and 0 no problem at all. The study was conducted in Kishoreganj Sadar Upazila under Kishoreganj district. Data were collected from randomly selected 100 farmers out of 340 farmers using an interview schedule. The majority of the farmers (58%) had medium problems while 39% had high and only 3% had low problems in adopting artificial insemination. Among the problems, inseminator problem and heat stage were considered the most critical problems in the survey area.