Impact of Herbicide Application in Rice Cultivation: A Case Study in Mymensingh District of Bangladesh

The research has been conducted to determine the impacts of herbicide application on rice cultivation and to explore the contributory factors affecting herbicide application in rice cultivation. Characteristics of the rice grower farmers were age, education, rice farming area, family agricultural labor, rice farming experience, annual rice farming income, organizational participation, extension contact, knowledge on herbicide use, attitude towards use of herbicide, time spent in rice cultivation. Data were collected from randomly selected 323 Common Interest Group (CIG) member rice farmers of three selected unions (Dhara, Phulpur, Nandail) of three selected upazillas (Haluaghat, Phulpur, Nandail) of Mymensingh district of Bangladesh with the help of a pre-tested interview schedule during the period from 01 January 2024 to 30 March 2024. It was revealed through t-test that there was positive and significant impact of using herbicide in cost, frequency of application, time and yield aspect. Multiple regression analysis indicated that attitude of the farmers towards herbicide was most important characteristic which strongly influenced the impact of herbicide application in rice cultivation. Age, education, rice farming area and extension contact of the farmers also had remarkable influence on the impact of herbicide application in rice cultivation.  The findings may helpful for the policy makers to increase the production of rice through application of herbicides.

Keywords: Herbicides; Rice cultivation; Impact; Multiple regression.