Resource-Poor Farmers' Constraints regarding Integrated Soil Fertility and Nutrient Management for Sustainable Crop Production: A farm level study in Bangladesh

Sustainable crop production requires a judicious management of soil resources and of all plant nutrient sources available in a farm or a village. The main focus of the study was to determine the constraints faced by the resource-poor farmers regarding integrated soil fertility and nutrient management for sustainable crop production. Field work was conducted in eight villages of four districts in Bangladesh and data were collected from 92 resource-poor farmers through personal interviews. Four point-summated rating scales were used to determine farmers' constraints while five point Likert-type response scales were used to measure the suggestions provided by them to improve the situations. Findings indicated that most of the farmers confronted high problems regarding soil fertility and nutrient management aspects. The issues mostly confronted were the lack of organizing demonstration plots, inadequate training facilities, lack of availability information sources, financial problems, unavailability and unstable price of chemical fertilizers and shortage of knowledge about the beneficial aspect of using organic manure along with chemical fertilizers for crop production. Develop facilities for easy way of getting agricultural loan prior to crop seasons, strengthen extension activities especially for resource-poor farmers, and ensure the availability of chemical fertilizers during cropping seasons with stable price were the matters mostly suggested by farmers to improve the situations