In the present study, Knowledge Index (KI) and Adoption Index (AI) were developed to measure the knowledge level and Adoption level of Chilli Technology of farmers in Char Area of Bangladesh. A preliminary test of thirty knowledge items related to chilli cultivation technology was administered to 38 chilli farmers who were involved in chilli production in island char areas. Data were collected during February to March 2008 through interview schedule. The Knowledge Index (KI) ranged from 71 to 99 and Adoption Index (AI) ranged from 68 to 98. A correlation coefficient of KI and AI was 0.97 which indicated that a high relation exists between Knowledge Index (KI) and Adoption Index (AI). The major constraints are ignorance about improved seeds and cultivation practices, chemicals with doses and method of application, scientific method of storage, etc. The major economic and physical constraints are the high cost of the seed of improved cultivars, non-availability of funds, etc. It was recommended that the farmers be guided through extension visits to teach them adoption of new technologies related to Chilli production. The study will help researcher, agricultural extension worker, policy maker and NGOs to address and analyse the issues related to knowledge, adoption and constraints of not only chilli production but also other field and horticultural crops production.

1. Knowledge, Adoption and Constraint analysis of Chilli Technology in Char Area of Bangladesh
IJEDR
Knowledge, adoption and constraint analysis of chilli
technology in Char area of Bangladesh
Md. Nazirul Islam Sarker*
*Department of Agricultural Extension Education, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh, Bangladesh.
Email: nazirul2012@gmail.com, Phone: +8801816739039
In the present study, Knowledge Index (KI) and Adoption Index (AI) were developed to measure
the knowledge level and Adoption level of Chilli Technology of farmers in Char Area of
Bangladesh. A preliminary test of thirty knowledge items related to chilli cultivation technology
was administered to 38 chilli farmers who were involved in chilli production in island char areas.
Data were collected during February to March 2008 through interview schedule. The Knowledge
Index (KI) ranged from 71 to 99 and Adoption Index (AI) ranged from 68 to 98. A correlation
coefficient of KI and AI was 0.97 which indicated that a high relation exists between Knowledge
Index (KI) and Adoption Index (AI). The major constraints are ignorance about improved seeds
and cultivation practices, chemicals with doses and method of application, scientific method of
storage, etc. The major economic and physical constraints are the high cost of the seed of
improved cultivars, non-availability of funds, etc. It was recommended that the farmers be
guided through extension visits to teach them adoption of new technologies related to Chilli
production. The study will help researcher, agricultural extension worker, policy maker and
NGOs to address and analyse the issues related to knowledge, adoption and constraints of not
only chilli production but also other field and horticultural crops production.
Key words: Knowledge index, adoption index, chilli, constraint analysis, island char area, Bangladesh
INTRODUCTION
Chilli (Capsicum frutescence) is one of the major spices
for our daily foodstuff. Chilli is the most important and
most widely grown spices crop among spices and
condiments in Bangladesh. The average yield of dry chilli
is 997.89 kg/ha in 2005-2006 (BBS, 2007). This is a low
amount to meet up the species requirement of
Bangladesh.
In Bangladesh, there are about 0.82 million hectares of
char land (Ahmed et al., 1987). The major char inhabited
districts of Bangladesh are Jamalpur, Sirajgonj, Noakhali,
Bogra, Rangpur and Mymensingh. A large number of
populations are living in these char areas and maintaining
their livelihood through char based farming systems. Boro
rice is mainly grown in the lowland areas of chars with
indigenous irrigation facilities while other crops (chilli,
onion, garlic, coriander, mustard, potato, jute, mungbean,
black gram etc.) are grown in the medium and highland
areas of the chars. Chilli is one of the major spices crop
in Bangladesh cultivated in 2, 40,000 acres of land (both
winter and summer) with a production of 1,26,000 metric
ton (BBS, 2012).
L.K. Sharma and Vinod Gupta (2010) found that Majority
of the respondents had knowledge regarding earthing up,
sowing time, transplanting time, weeding, recommended
varieties and seed rate. Almost one-third to half of the
respondents had knowledge regarding potassium dose,
seed treatment, split dose of nitrogen, insects, pest’s
diseases and their control, nitrogen dose, farm yard
manure dose and phosphorus dose. The major
constraints expressed by chilli growers were heavy price
fluctuation of the produce, no support price of chilli, lack
of knowledge of raising nursery, low price at peak time
International Journal of Ecology and Development Research
Vol. 1(1), pp. 016-018, June, 2016. © www.premierpublishers.org. ISSN: 2167-0449
Research Article

2. Knowledge, Adoption and Constraint analysis of Chilli Technology in Char Area of Bangladesh
Sarker MNI 016
and the high cost of hybrid seeds. The major constraints
expressed by ex-chilli growers were, comparatively
decrease in the production of chilli, the intensive
requirement of labour at picking and low price at peak
time. They conducted their study on the knowledge of
recommended practices of chilli cultivation and problems
faced by the growers and ex-growers of selected districts
of Punjab.
Rajput H D (2007) found that among the reasons,
lowering water table, unavailability of labours, lack of
knowledge about dipping the seedling in insecticide
solution and seed treatments lack of churda murda
resistant varieties, high cost of insecticide and fertilizer,
high cost of improved varieties of seed, delayed
transplanting due to no rains, low prices in market were
the important factors.
The production of chilli in the research station is higher
than field level. Thus, it seems due to socio-economic,
technological and infrastructural constraints; the farmers
could not exploit the potential and catch up with even the
national average productivity level. It was in the
background of this situation obtained in Jamalpur that a
study into knowledge, adoption and constraint analysis of
chilli technology was undertaken in the Jamalpur district
of Bangladesh during February to March 2008.
The following were the objectives:
1. To measure the level of knowledge and adoption
of chilli technology among chilli growers.
2. To identify the socio-economic, technological and
infrastructural constraints perceived by chilli growers in
chilli cultivation and marketing.
METHODOLOGY
The study was confined to two villages named Char
Munnia and char Sindurtoli of Jamalpur district earlier
identified for operating Emerging spices crop production
of Chars Livelihoods Program on stepping up the
production of chilli to run during its first phase. The total
chilli grower under the project was 150. Among them,
25% that is 38 farm families was selected as sample. The
sample was identified by simple random sampling. The
data were collected during February to March 2008
through personnel interviews from the active heads of the
sampled farm families through a well-structured interview
schedule.
Knowledge Index
Agricultural knowledge of the respondents was measured
by asking 30 questions related to chilli cultivation. A score
of 3 was assigned to each question, and a total of 90
scores was assigned to all questions. A full score (3) was
given for each correct answer. However, score two and
one was given to nearly correct and partial answer
respectively of a certain question and 0 was assigned for
the wrong answer. The scores were obtained by a
respondent could range from 0 to 90, where 0 indicating
no agricultural knowledge and 90 indicating very high
agricultural knowledge. It was measured by the following
formula.
Knowledge Index= (Sum of knowledge score obtained by
respondent/Sum of the obtained knowledge score) X 100
Adoption Index
Adoption of chilli technology of the respondents was
measured by asking 30 questions related to chilli
cultivation. A score of 3 was assigned to each technology
and total of 90 scores was assigned to all technology. A
full score (3) was given for full adoption. However, score
two and one was given to near adoption and partial
adoption respectively of a certain question and 0 was
assigned for non-adoption. The scores were obtained by
a respondent could range from 0 to 90, where 0
indicating no adoption and 90 indicating a full adoption. It
was measured by the following formula.
Adoption Index= (Sum of knowledge score obtained by
respondent/ Sum of the obtainable adoption score) X 100
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Knowledge and adoption level of chilli farmers in char
area. Knowledge and adoption of key recommended by
Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute for the region
were assessed during the survey. The data on these two
aspects are presented in Table 1.
The overall knowledge index ranged from 71 to 90, and
the overall adoption index ranged from 68 to 98. The
correlation coefficient “r” between knowledge and
adoption indices was found to be 0.97. The “r” value of
such score high order showed that knowledge and
Adoption Index of the respondents was highly correlated
with each other. The table indicates that there was the
same group in the knowledge and adoption indices also
indicating that even when the farmers know technology.
They adopted it in most of the cases.
However the level of knowledge and adoption of
technology also clearly indicated that the information and
its utilisation were also not a serious problem, and this
healthy situation did affect the production and productivity
of chilli because the adopted farmers on an average were
able to harvest 2.8 t/ha of chilli. Most of the grower
adopted technology learned from various sources. Similar
findings were reported by L.K. Sharma and Vinod Gupta
(2010).

3. Knowledge, Adoption and Constraint analysis of Chilli Technology in Char Area of Bangladesh
Int. J. Ecol. Devel. Res. 017
Table 1. Knowledge and adoption level of chilli technology among chilli farmers.
Sl no. Technology component Knowledge Index Adoption Index
1 Recommended chilli seeds 79 76
2 No. of pre-showing plough 99 97
3 Sources of disease-free seed 79 81
4 Appropriate weight of seed 76 79
5 Appropriate size of seed 61 68
6 Only seed showing 75 75
7 Only transplanting 83 84
8 Desirability of sprouted seed 97 98
9 Use of oversized rate of seed 81 82
10 Optimum time of sowing 94 95
11 Plant to plant spacing 79 89
12 Row to row spacing 79 82
13 Nitrogen dose 73 75
14 Time of application of Nitrogen 89 90
15 Phosphorous dose 83 86
16 Time of application of Phosphorous 81 84
17 Potash dose 80 82
18 Time of application of Potash 82 81
19 Time of first irrigation 96 95
20 Interval between irrigation 95 96
21 Method of weed control 97 98
22
Diseases and pest controlled by
chemicals 68 73
23 Proper maturity level for chilli harvesting 92 93
24 Time of last irrigation before harvesting 86 89
25 Curing of harvested chilli 85 86
26 Seed treatment before sowing 71 76
27 Seed treatment before storing 69 75
28 Soil treatment 75 79
29 Direction of bed/ridges and furrows 81 83
30 Scientific method of storage 73 75
Source: Field survey, 2008
Table 2. Constraints faced by the chilli growers in Char Area of Bangladesh
Sl no. Constraints No. of
responses
percentage
1 Ignorance about improved seeds and cultivation practices 25 66
2 Time and number of irrigation. 21 55
3 No. of ploughing to be given for field preparation 15 39
4 Methods, quantity and types of fertilizer. 26 68
5 Chemicals with their doses and method of application. 29 76
6 Scientific method of storage. 28 74
7
Improved variety required more no. of irrigation and farmers didn’t
assure source of irrigation. 27 71
8 Lack of guidance on marketing. 26 68
Source: Field survey, 2008
Constraints perceived by the farmers in the scientific
cultivation of chilli
An inventory of technological, socio-economic and
infrastructural constraints hindering the scientific
cultivation of chilli and exploring the full potential was
listed, and the farmers were requested to mention such
constraints which were relevant to them. In the entire
inventory contained eight such constraints. On the basis
of response received, the data were classified and
percentages of farmers reporting different constraints
were worked out.
The chilli growers also mentioned eleven economic and
physical constraints which faced by them during
cultivation as follows.

4. Knowledge, Adoption and Constraint analysis of Chilli Technology in Char Area of Bangladesh
Sarker MNI 018
Table 3. Prominent among economic and physical constraints.
Sl no. Constraints No. of
responses
percentage
1 The high cost of the seed of improved cultivars/variety 32 84
2 Unavailability of fertilizer and cost. 21 55
3 Need more irrigation. 18 47
4 Didn’t get remuneration prices 28 74
5 Non-availability of funds of costly pesticides. 31 82
6 Production and productivity level being low. 27 71
7 Fertilizer 26 68
8 Plant protection chemicals. 30 79
9 Proper time and close vicinity. 19 50
10 Land owner didn’t cooperate in input. 12 32
11 Non-availability of desirable seeds. 25 66
Source: Field survey, 2008
Whereas, the recommended finding in correct knowledge
and adoption need to be given emphasis in various
training program to bridge the gap. The recommendation
finding partially correct knowledge and adoption among
the farmers could cause more damage and therefore,
need to be taken up first, for promoting corrective
measures.
Conclusively therefore, ignorance on some components
of chilli technology, high cost of inputs and their non-
availability at proper time in the close vicinity of the
villages, risk of damage to the crop in the storage without
any component for the same, non-availability of buyer
and market, remunerative prices and non-availability of
funds were perceived to be the more constraints coming
in the way of exploring full production potential, storage
and marketing of chilli.
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Ministry of Planning, Government of the People’s
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BBS (Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics) (2012).
Agricultural Statistical Yearbook of Bangladesh.
Statistics Division, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics.
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H. D. Rajput1, S. V. Supe 2 and U. R.
Chinchmalatpure.2007. Factors Associated for
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Accepted 20 June, 2016.
Citation: Sarker MNI (2016). Knowledge, Adoption and
Constraint analysis of Chilli Technology in Char Area of
Bangladesh. International Journal of Ecology and
Development Research, 1(1): 016-018.
Copyright: © 2016 Sarker MNI. This is an open-access
article distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted
use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original author and source are cited.