EXTENT OF FARMERS' EMPOWERMENT THROUGH ENVIRONMENT FRIENDLY INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT (IPM) PRACTICES

The purpose of the study was to determine the empowerment of farmers field school (FFS) members due to their participation in the FFS through IPM practices. Farm family heads of FFSs of 18 Upazilas (one upazila from each district) covering 6 divisions and 09 agricultural regions of Bangladesh constitute the population sample of the study. Farmers’ empowerment was measured by investigating situation between pre and post joining of FFS. Random sampling method was used for the study for sampling purpose. A total of 180 respondents were selected following simple random technique. Interview schedule was used for data collection. The data were collected during 15^th January, 2010 to 15^th May, 2010. The selected characteristics of the respondents were considered the independent variables; in all there were 12 such variables. Farmers’ empowerment through IPM was the dependent variable of the study.   Among eight indicators of farmers’ empowerment, the achievement was maximum in case of “pest management issues” and minimum in case of “communication exposure”. The cumulative empowerment index was significantly higher in post situation than the pre situation which indicated that farmers’ joining in FFS had a good effect in improving their empowerment. Organizational participation, Knowledge on IPM, Attitude towards IPM and aspiration had highly positively significant relationship with empowerment.