Sociology and Extension Education

SUMMARY: Christian Commission for Development in Bangladesh (CCDB) was formed in 1973, as a national level voluntary organization, to complete the relief and rehabilitation work initiated in 1972, by Bangladesh Ecumenical Relief and Rehabilitation Services (BERRS), for responding the needs of the affected people during the war of independence in 1971 and to undertake development interventions. CCDB as an organization went through a number of change process in development phases, for responding to the emerging issues and in search for better alternatives for meeting the needs of the poor. One of the recent innovative technologies (e.g. biochar promotion) has been undertaken by CCDB for the improvement of marginal and poor including ethnic communities (Adivashis). The study was undertaken to assess the scopes and constraints of biochar produced through Akha Chula or Top-Lit-Up-Draft (TLUD) among the Adivashis Santal households. Eighty (80) household were selected as sample from a recent list biochar promoters using random sampling method. Data were collected by a pre-tested interview schedule during May 2017. Adivasi Santal household members were the respondents in the study area. Finding indicates that highest proportion (74%) household respondents expressed moderately favorable perception of the scopes of biochar promotion using Akha Chula, while 16% had low and only 10% had high favorable perception of the scopes of biochar promotion. The top five ranked scopes or opportunities of biochar promotion using Akha Chula could be written as: a) Akha Chula produces high heat or renewable energy without smoking and black spot with consuming less time for cooking food materials; b) Both Akha Chula and biochar are environment friendly ensuring long term soil fertility and better crop yield. The major five problems or challenges faced by the household respondents were unavailability of Akha Chula in the market; unavailability of fuel-wood materials, difficult to control Chula temperature; lack of information about biochar usage, and complexity in storage of biochar. The entrepreneur and related stakeholders should take appropriate steps in order to overcome these challenges so that it is effective to promote the Akha Chula and biochar with multi-benefits.

ABSTRACT: The main purpose of the study was to determine the tribal farmers’ attitude towards biochar production and utilization for sustainable agriculture. Data were collected from 104 randomly selected tribal farmers out of 150 tribal farmers at Daudpur union of Nawabgang upazila under Dinajpur district, through personal interview. A pretested and structured interview schedule was used to collect data from the respondents during 15 March to 18 April, 2017. Simple and direct questions with different scales were used to obtain information. Co-efficient of correlation (r) was computed in order to explore the relationships between the ten selected characteristics of the tribal farmers and their attitude towards biochar production and utilization for sustainable agriculture. more than three-fourths (76.92 %) of the tribal farmers had highly favorable attitude towards biochar production and utilization for sustainable agriculture while 6.7 % moderately favorable attitude and only 1 % had slightly favorable attitude. It is found that the majority about 92.3 % of the tribal farmers showed moderately favorable to highly favorable attitude towards biochar production and utilization for sustainable agriculture. Correlation analyses indicated that among ten selected characteristics farm size, annual household income, training received, credit received, organizational participation and contact with extension media of the Tribal farmers had positive significant relationships with their attitude biochar production and utilization for sustainable agriculture. However, age, education, family size and cosmopoliteness had no significant relationships with their attitude towards biochar production and utilization for sustainable agriculture. The highest problem faced by the tribal farmers in implementing of biochar production and utilization was found on ‘Lack of woody fuel’ (PFI =228). Lowest proportion of tribal farmers faced problems on ‘need kerosene for initially fire’ (PFI =50).

ABSTRACT: The main purpose of the study was to determine the knowledge of tribal women on biochar promotion for homestead gardening. Data were collected from the tribal women of Nawabgang Upazila under Dinajpur district, through personal interview. A pretested and structured interview schedule was used to collect data from the respondents during 16 August to 17 September, 2017. Simple and direct questions with different scales were used to obtain information. Co-efficient of correlation (r) was computed in order to explore the relationships between the ten selected characteristics of the tribal women and their knowledge on biochar. Findings indicated that majority 36.3% of the tribal women had high knowledge followed by 34.3% had low knowledge and 29.4% had medium knowledge on biochar. Correlation analyses indicated that among five selected characteristics such as level of education,farm size, annual family income, training received, and extension media contact of the tribal women had positive significant relationships with their knowledge on biochar for homestead gardening. However, age, family size, decision making ability, organizational participation and fatalism had no significant relationships with their knowledge on biochar for homestead gardening. The highest problem faced by the tribal women in on biochar promotion= gardening was found on ‘lack of woody fuel’ (PFI =223). The lowest problem of tribal women faced on ‘complexity on storage’ (PFI =50).

ABSTRACT: The main purpose of the study was to determine training needs of CCDB Beneficiaries and Non-Beneficiaries for Biochar promotion. Data were collected from the CCDB Beneficiaries and Non-Beneficiaries at Daudpur and Mahmudpur union of Nawabganj Upazila under Dinajpur district through personal interview. A pretested and structured interview schedule was used to collect data from the respondents during 16 August to 17 September 2017. Descriptive statistics are performed to explain the selected characteristics of the tribal women. Student t-test (Independent Sample t-test) for difference of means was computed regarding any selected characteristics and focus issue in order to measure the difference between the CCDB and non-CCDB beneficiaries. Results indicated that majority (65.4 percent) CCDB beneficiaries needed low training on biochar promotion followed by 34.6percent needed medium training, but in case of CCDB non-beneficiaries, majority (53.8 percent) of them needed high training on biochar promotion activities, while 44.2 percent needed medium training and only 1.9 percent needed low training. There were significant differences between the selected characteristics of the two groups of beneficiaries such as annual income, extension media contact and knowledge on Biochar. In addition, significant difference also observed between the two groups of beneficiaries in terms of training needs. Coefficient of correlation (r) was computed to explore the relationship between the seven selected characteristics including age, education, family size, farm size, annual income, extension media contact, knowledge on Biochar and their training needs for Biochar promotion. Among seven selected characteristics, there were significant relationship between the selected characteristics of the CCDB beneficiaries and their training needs in term of farm size and knowledge on Biochar. On the other hand, there were significant relationship between the selected characteristics of the CCDB non beneficiaries and their training needs in term of education, farm size, annual income and knowledge on Biochar. The 1st ranked training needs on biochar production and utilization for Biochar promotion was ‘balanced use of biochar in crop field’ followed by ‘methods of using Biochar in crop field’ was ranked 2nd for both CCDB beneficiaries and Non-beneficiaries.

ABSTRACT: The main purpose of the study was to determine the participation of tribal women in Biochar production and preservation. Data were collected from the tribal women at Daudpur and Mahamudpur union of Nawabganj upazila under Dinajpur district, through personal interview. A pretested and structured interview schedule was used to collect data from the respondents during 16 August to 17 September 2017 from a sample of 102 tribal womens. Descriptive statistics are estimated to explain the selected characteristics of the tribal women. Co-efficient of correlation (r) was computed in order to explore the relationship between the eleven selected characteristics including age, educational qualification, family size, farm size, annual income, cosmopoliteness, fatalism, training received, credit received, and extension media contact and their participation of biochar production and preservation. Among ten selected characteristics of tribal women, annual income, training received, credit received and extension media contact of the respondents had positive and significant relationship with their participation in Biochar production and preservation. The rest of the characteristics of the tribal women such as age, educational qualification, family size, farm size, cosmopoliteness and fatalism had no any significant relationship with their participation in Biochar production and preservation. Findings showed that majority of the tribal women (41.2%) had low participation compared to 30.4% had medium and 28.4% had high participation in Biochar production and preservation. The top ranked problem (1st) faced by the tribal women in Biochar production and preservation was found ‘difficulty in fuel collection’. The lowest proportion of tribal women faced problems on ‘market unavailability of Akha Chula.

ABSTRACT: The study was undertaken to determine the extent of constraints as faced by the CCDB beneficiaries for biochar promotion. The study was conducted in Nawabganj Upazila under Dinajpur district. Ninety eight (98) CCDB beneficiaries were selected as sample from a recent list biochar promoters using random sampling method. Data were collected by a pre-tested interview schedule during 15 March to 15 May 2017. The focus issue constraints on biochar promotion were measured with 4-point rating scale such as not at all, low, medium and high and scores of 0, 1, 2 and 3 were assigned respectively. The overall constraints of biochar promotion were computed by adding together all the individual scores obtained by him/her for all the constraints. Besides the usual descriptive statistical parameter, Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Coefficient (r) was used for the statistical analysis. The highest proportion (60.2 percent) of the CCDB beneficiaries had faced medium constraint, while 36.7 percent had low and only 3.1 percent had faced high constraint for biochar promotion. Among the 10 selected characteristics of the CCDB beneficiaries, four (4) of them namely annual income, credit received, innovativeness and knowledge on biochar showed negative and significant relationship with the constraints of biochar promotion. The top rank constraint faced by the CCDB beneficiaries was ‘lack of fuel-wood materials’ followed by ‘cooking habit with traditional stove’ was 2nd and ‘difficult to control Chula temperature’ was the 3rd constraint for biochar promotion. The lowest constraint faced by the CCDB beneficiaries was ‘high price of Akha Chula’.