J. Patuakhali Sci. and Tech. Univ. 2015, 6 (1): 73-83 ISSN 1996-4501 Problem Confrontation in Sunflower Cultivation by the Farmers of Nazirpur in Pirojpur A. Mandal1, A. T. M. S. Haque2, M. G. R. Akanda3 and M. K. Hasan4 Abstract The main focus of the study was to explore the problems confronted by the farmers in sunflower cultivation. Further attempts were made to reveal the determinants of their problem confrontation. Following a multi-stage random sampling method, a total of 92 farmers who have been cultivating sunflower were selected from Nazirpur upazila in Pirojpur in Bangladesh. Firstly, problems were identified through discussions with the farmers and literature reviews. Secondly, interviews with the sunflower cultivators were administered to quantify the problems along with their potential determinants that are stemmed from their socio-economic attributes. The farmers were found to have a moderate level of problems in sunflower cultivation with a small variation (M = 23.62 and SD = 4.55 against a possible score range between 0 to 45). Unweighted ranking of the problems shows that the top three problems out of fifteen were high price of seed, unavailability of improved seed and costly irrigation. Multiple linear regression without addressing the endogeneity problems has confirmed the age, training exposure, cosmopoliteness, knowledge and risk orientation of the farmers as the determinants of their problem confrontation. In order to minimize the extent of the problems, relatively older farmers need to be trained on sunflower cultivation. They need to be prepared to take to some extent of potential challenge of sunflower cultivation through providing input and marketing support by public and private initiatives. Besides, an expected level of solution to the problems depends on the availability of improved seeds of sunflower at lower cost. Keywords: Sunflower farmers, problem confrontation, determinants of problems Introduction Sunflower (Helianthus annuus), an important oil crop next to soybean, originates from Central and North America (FAO, 2015). The move to cultivate sunflower came to southern Bangladesh by BRAC (Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee) following the super-cyclone Sidr in 2007 with a view to rehabilitate the farmers (Star Business Report, 2013). However, the coastal region of southern Bangladesh is vulnerable to climate change (Karmalkar et al., 2010; Ramachandran, 2013) and sunflower can be a good adaptation option to climate change for this region. It can be grown in rabi (dry) season in a prevailing saline condition of 4-8 dS/m (Muralidharudu et al., 1999). Sunflower can tolerate this soil salinity because of its very deep root system which can take up about 60 to 70 percent of its water from one meter 1 Ex-MS student, 2 Assistant Professor, 3 Professor, and 4 Assistant Professor, Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Development, Patuakhali Science and Technology University, Dumki, Patuakhali, Bangladesh 74 J. Patuakhali Sci. and Tech. Univ. 2015, 6 (1): 73-83 ISSN 1996-4501 below the soil (Top Crop Manager, 1999). Cropping intensity of Pirojpur was 183% in 2013-14 and it remained the same within next two years while it increased to some extent in other areas of Barisal region (Nath, 2016). However, sunflower cultivation shows currently a gradual increasing trend in Pirojpur district because of its high profit potential. According to the DAE (Department of Agricultural Extension) report, 199 hectares of land in Pirojpur (135 hectares in Nazirpur upazila) have been brought under sunflower cultivation in the year of 2015 (Rahman, 2015). Sunflower cultivation needs less effort and inputs, such as irrigation, fertilizers and insecticides. Its seeds’ oil extraction conversion factor is 30 to 50%. Thus, its cultivation is less effort intensive but more profitable (Hossain, 2011). The farmers can sell one kilogram of sunflower seeds for BDT 30 that gives BDT 80 to 100 thousand per hectare of land (Ahsan, 2015). The DAE also encouraged the local farmers to cultivate sunflower because it is more profitable than rice cultivation (Hossain, 2011). However, Pirojpur district still has a lot of fallow lands specially in winter period. Temporary fallow land in this district is 27.16% and substantial part of it can be brought under sunflower cultivation (Nath, 2013). Thus, the farmers have ample scope to cultivate sunflower in their lands but the land under sunflower cultivation is not increasing at expected level. This could be due to the cash crop nature of sunflower that is difficult to market along with other problems. Farmers are unable to get fair price in the absence of market; and the local traders took the opportunity to exploit them. To overcome this situation, BRAC provides a buy-back guarantee to encourage the farmers to grow sunflower (Star Business Report, 2013). Still it is not sufficient condition to enhance sunflower cultivation. In order to expand the sunflower cultivation in these areas, we need to identify different problems along with the marketing constraints. In this context, this study aims to determine the extent of problem confrontation in sunflower cultivation by the farmers of Nazirpur upazila in Pirojpur and to explore the factors influencing their problem confrontation. Methodology This study was carried out in Nazirpur upazila in Pirojpur in southern Bangladesh. This area is suitable for sunflower cultivation. The farmers in this area cultivate mainly one crop (transplanted aman) in a year during August/ September to November/ December. This is due to the unfavorable soil and water salinity. This leads to a major cropping pattern in the coastal areas like fallow-fallow-transplanted aman. Thus, the lands in the dry period mostly remain fallow. Therefore, the farmers started growing sunflower after transplanted aman with the initiative of BRAC, DAE and IRRI (International Rice Research Institute) (Nath, 2013). BRAC started sunflower farming through motivating farmers in Nazirpur in 2012 (Ahsan, 2015). These sunflower growers of Nazirpur are the population of this study. Problem Confrontation in Sunflower Cultivation by the Farmers 75 Multistage random sampling method was followed to select the respondent sunflower growers (Roy, 2000). In the first stage, 6 unions were randomly selected from a total of 8 unions of Nazirpur. In the second stage, 92 farmers were randomly selected from a total of 912 sunflower growers of 20 villages of the selected unions. The lists of all sunflower farmers of the selected villages were collected from the respective BRAC offices. Data were collected using a pretested interview schedule during March to April 2016. Extent of problem confrontation in sunflower cultivation was the dependent variable. In order to identify the problems, firstly, the sunflower farmers and expert members from BRAC were consulted and literature reviews were done. Secondly, these problems were scored with a 4-point rating scale (0 for not all, 1 for low, 2 for medium and 3 for high) to quantify the problems. The selected socio-economic characteristics of the farmers constituted the independent variables. The characteristics were age, education, farming experience, farm size, annual household income, training received, communication exposure, cosmopoliteness, knowledge on sunflower cultivation and risk orientation. These factors were assumed to be influential to the problem confrontation in adopting sunflower cultivation. Variable selection was based on expert opinions and the research works that mentioned farm size, low cost inputs, training experience, communication, cosmopoliteness, risk exposure etc. as the essential factors of agricultural technology adoption (Feder et al., 1985; Moser & Barrett, 2006). The measurement techniques have been summarized in Table 1. In order to explore the variables, descriptive statistics, such as mean, standard deviation and rank order were used. Multiple linear regression was performed to identify the determinants of problem confrontation by the sunflower farmers (Gujarati & Porter, 2009). Table 1. Measurement techniques of independent variables Independent variables Measurement techniques 1. Age Actual age in years from birth to the day of interview. 2. Education Years of schooling or highest class of school attained by the respondent farmer. 3. Farming experience Years of involvement in farming activities by the interviewed farmer. 4. Farm size Measured in hectare in terms of full benefit; sharecropped or leased land areas were divided by two and the results were added to homestead and own land under own cultivation to obtain the farm size. 5. Annual household Total monetary value of the outputs from both agricultural and non- income agricultural sources of income and expressed in thousand BDT. 6. Training received A score was given to the farmer based on his total number of days of training received on farming activities including sunflower cultivation (0 for not at all, 1 for attended training for 1 to 5 days, 2 for more than 5 days). 76 J. Patuakhali Sci. and Tech. Univ. 2015, 6 (1): 73-83 ISSN 1996-4501 7. Communication A total of 21 information sources were included in the interview exposure schedule to know their frequency of contact with the respective sources per unit of time that differs according to the expected level of contact. Thereafter, a subjective score (0 to 4) was given to each of the sources based on the frequency of contact. Total score of all the sources was the observed value for this variable. 8. Cosmopoliteness It represents the frequency of visit out of his own unions, such as other unions (a group of villages), own/ other upazilas, own/ other districts, other districts and capital city. Scoring method was similar to the method used for ‘communication exposure’ variable. 8. Knowledge on A total of 14 questions related to sunflower cultivation were asked to sunflower the farmers. Highest possible score for each of the correct answers cultivation was 2, while the wrong answers were scored as zero. Total scores for all the questions were computed to obtain the score for this variable. 9. Risk orientation It reveals the psychological strength of risk taking attitude of the farmers for farming activities.