The main objective of the study was to determine the attitude of the peri-urban women towards homestead gardening. The study was conducted in two peri-urban areas —namely, Jahanpur and Sayedpur at the premises of Sadar upazila of Sylhet district. Data were collected from 100 women following a simple random sampling technique from a population of 1624 women using a pretested well-structured questionnaire interview schedule from 26 April through 30 May, 2018. Attitude was measured on 24 statements mainly constructed on cognitive, affective, conative, and evaluative issues of homestead gardening. Scoring for each positive statement was done on the basis of response of the respondent by assigning +2, +1, 0, -1, and -2 to the five alternative responses as “strongly agree”, “agree”, “undecided”, “disagree”, and “strongly disagree” fashion. A reverse score was assigned for a negative statement. Findings indicated that 57% of the respondents were middle-aged, 49% had a secondary level of education, 65% of them had medium family size, and the majority (67%) had medium knowledge about gardening. The respondents had no training experience (48%), very low organizational participation (86%), and medium cosmopoliteness (62%). Most of them (67%) showed a moderately favorable attitude towards homestead gardening, followed by 20 percent showed less favorable, and only 13 percent showed a highly favorable attitude. They evaluated homestead gardening as a profitable enterprise (ranked 1%; AI=148) and a good source of family nutrition (ranked 2″; AI=144). Pleasing feelings with homestead gardening (ranked 3″;AI=143) has developed a belief regarding effective use of leisure time (AI=129), which ranked 4”. An idea of ‘establishing a homestead garden from a long distance of land gardening ensure more production’ generated through experiencing this practice ranked 5″ (AI=128). In contrast, insect and pest infestation, absence of a suitable environment for growing vegetables year round, sudden loss of production, complexity in maintenance, and high cost of growing vegetables during the summer season were the negative impact of homestead gardening. Pearson’s product moment correlation coefficient ‘r’ showed that the attitude of the peri-urban women is significantly and positively associated with annual income, homestead size, knowledge, use of information sources, and cosmopoliteness.

Keywords: Attitude, homestead gardening, peri-urban women

The main objective of the study was to determine the attitude of the smallholder farmers towards modern maize production and to explore the relationships between the selected characteristics of the maize growers and the attitude. The study was conducted in three villages under Goaldihi union of Khansama upazila of Dinajpur district. Data were collected from 50 maize growers randomly selected as sample from a population of 93 growers of three selected villages by using a pretested well-structured interview schedule from 1 October to 30 November, 2018. Attitude was measured through 30 items constructed on cognitive, affective, conative and evaluative psychology of growers towards the modern maize production. Results revealed that majority (70%) of the growers had moderately favorable attitude towards modern maize production followed by 16% less favorable and only 14% had highly favorable attitude. The results also revealed that attitude of smallholders was mainly influenced by their cognition (AI=38.0 scores), conation (AI=35.75 scores), evaluation (AI=24.21 scores) and affection (AI=13.16 scores) to modern maize production. Precisely, high profit, facilitated family nutrition, source of livestock feed and rich source of fuel straw for family consumption had substantial influence on such attitude. The result of Pearson’s product moment correlation co-efficient ‘r’ showed significant positive association between the education, annual income, profit gained, cosmopoliteness, use of communication media and the attitude of smallholder farmers towards modern maize production cognitive.

Keywords: Attitude, Modern maize production, Small holder farmer

A huge amount of land in the Sylhet region remains fallow after the harvest of T. Aman paddy between November and December. On those fallow lands, although sporadically, recently sunflower is grown by some farmers bringing them new hope to secure financial solvency by making good use of their abandoned lands. The study attempted to ass the attitude level of Sylhet district farmers toward sunflower cultivation and explore the relationship between selected characteristics of the farmers and their attitudes. The study was conducted in four unions of Fenchuganj upazila under Sylhet district. Data were collected from 50 sunflower farmers following simple random sampling from a list of 250 farmers using a pre-tested well-structured interview schedule from June 30 through July 30, 2020. A total of 18 statements reflecting cognitive, affective, conative and evaluation of sunflower cultivation were constructed to measure the attitude level of the farmers towards sunflower cultivation. A five-point rating scale containing strongly agree (4), agree (3), no opinion (2), disagree (1), and strongly disagree (0) was used to measure the attitude level of the farmers. Results revealed that the majority (68%) of the farmer had high favorable attitude towards sunflower cultivation, followed by 22% had medium favorable and only 10% had low favorable attitude. The correlation coefficient ‘r’ showed that the farmers’ education, annual family income, cosmopoliteness and use of communication media of the farmers had a positive significant relationship with their attitude while age, family size, farm size and organizational participation had not significant relationship with their attitude.

Keywords: Attitude, Sunflower, Cognitive, Affective, Conative, Evaluat

The main focus of the study was to assess the attitude of rural women towards homestead vegetable cultivation for livelihood improvement and to explore the relationship between the selected characteristics of the rural women with homestead vegetable cultivation. Data were collected from a sample of hundred (100) women of two villages of South Surma upazila of Sylhet district. The attitude of rural women was determined for 7 items under the vegetable cultivation of homestead. A comparative attitude index was computed for seven statements under vegetable cultivation by using attitude scale. Co-efficient of correlation (r) was computed to test the relationships between the dependent and independent variables. Results showed that highest percent (75%) of the rural women had shown moderate favorable attitude in vegetable cultivation for improving their livelihoods. Computed (r) values indicates that education, farm size, family income, agricultural knowledge, credit availability and communication exposure of the rural women had positive relationship with their attitude towards homestead vegetable cultivation for livelihood improvement. However, age, family size, aspiration and fatalism of the rural women had no significant relationship with their attitude towards vegetable cultivation.

Keywords: Attitude, rural women, homestead vegetable cultivation, livelihood improvement