Sayed Abu’s scientific contributions

The ability to obtain food security is essential to human existence. Secure food access can have a variety of positive effects, such as economic expansion, the creation of jobs, and the eradication of poverty. This study assessed the food security status of farm households and its determinants in the Dinajpur district of Bangladesh. Efforts were also made to assess and compare the socioeconomic demographics and item-wise calorie intake among households receiving government and non-government agricultural extension services. One hundred twenty-five (125) farm households receiving government or non-government extension services were selected using a multi-stage random sampling procedure. The percentages, means, and standard deviations were employed to summarise the data gathered during the interviews. The inferential statistical investigation involved using the independent sample t-test, correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis. The findings revealed that 68.8 % of the families in the study area were food secure, while food insecurity was more prevalent for those receiving non-government extension services. In addition, significant differences existed between the selected characteristics of the two groups of farmers in terms of age, household head's education, average family education, household size, farm size, farming experience, annual household income, annual household expenditure, knowledge on food and nutrition, and extension sources contact. There were also large discrepancies between the food item-wise calorie consumption between the two groups of farmers. The major determinants of household food security were dependency ratio, household size, training exposure, annual household income, knowledge on food and nutrition, and extension sources contact. It is recommended that both government and non-government agricultural extension organisations work together in an effective, transparent, and unbiased manner to reduce food insecurity.

The study aimed at exploring farmers’ attitude towards farm mechanization and finding out its relationships with the selected characteristics of the farmers. Problems faced by the farmers in farm mechanization and their corresponding solutions were also explored. Data were collected by using a pre-tested interview schedule at Phulbari upazila of Dinajpur district from randomly selected 93 respondents from the population of 931 farmers by using simple random sampling method during 25 September to 20 October 2019. Farmers’ attitude towards farm mechanization was the focus issue of the study and was measured by Likert scale. The observed score of farmers’ attitudes towards farm mechanization ranged from 13 to 59 with the mean score of 33.16 and a standard deviation of 8.78. Among the farmers, 63.4 percent belonged to neutral attitude category while 23.7 percent belonged to unfavorable and 12.9 percent to the favorable attitude category. Three out of nine selected characteristics of the farmers viz, educational qualification, training experience and extension media contact had significant positive relationships and annual income had negative significant relationship with their attitude towards farm mechanization. Rests of the characteristics had no significant relationship with the focus issue. Based on Problem Facing Indices (PFIs) the top ranked problem in relation to farm mechanization is machinery use is not profitable (PFI 223) and the top ranked solution suggested by the farmers in relation to farm mechanization is government subsidy in heavy farm machineries. Different agricultural development organizations should recognize the existing problems of farm mechanization and step forward for solving these problems.