Farmers' Response on Field Performance of BSMRAU Developed IPSA Seem and BU Pepe1 Crop Variety

Abstract

The study was conducted to investigate the adoption of IPSA seem and BU pepe1 crop variety by the farmers in Bhaluka upazila of Mymensingh and Meherpur Sadar upazila of Meherpur districts, respectively in Bangladesh. In-person interviews with 80 respondents and two focus group discussions were carried out to collect data. According to study findings, the highest portion of the respondents were young aged, literate, had medium farm size, low farming experience, and organizational participation and their average annual income were Tk. 192850 and Tk. 200500 for IPSA seem and BU pepe1 growers, respectively. Extent of adoption was above fifty percent in both cases of IPSA seem and BU pepe1 whereas the extent of BU pepe1 adoption was higher than IPSA seem. Performance of IPSA seem and BU pepe1 was satisfactory to the farmers in terms of ease of handling, better marketability and adaptation to the environment, vigor, and better physical appearance. Majority of the IPSA seem and BU pepe1 respondents experienced a medium increase in crop yield while medium to high-income increase by cultivating those varieties. Majority of them had a low to moderate knowledge gap in cultivating IPSA seem and BU pepe1. The major problems faced by the farmers were pod borer infestation, common mosaic virus for IPSA seem while low germination percentage, common mosaic virus for BU pepe1. The study results showed that respondents with small farm sizes were more interested in adopting IPSA seem than others. So, engaging small farmers in cultivating IPSA seem would make this technology more available and popular among the farmers.