Abstract
The study aimed at determining the technological gap in knowledge, skill, and practice of the farmers based on 12 selected practices of modern transplanted aman rice production. The contributions of 18 selected farmers' characteristics to their knowledge gap, skill gap, and practice gap in modern transplanted aman rice production were also explored. Data were collected from a sample of 260 rice farmers of 10 villages from 3 unions of 2 upazilas under Mymensingh district. The knowledge gap scores of the farmers ranged from 12.22 to 86.67 with a mean of 47.87. More than one-third (34.6 percent) of the farmers had low knowledge gap compared to 26.9 percent of them having moderate knowledge gap and 29.6 percent, high knowledge gap. Thus, the majority (56.5 percent) of the farmers had moderate to high knowledge gap regarding different recommended practices of modern transplaned aman rice production. The maximum knowledge gap was in potash fertilizer application. The skill gap. scores ranged from 20 to 77.5 with a mean of 48.14. Majority of the farmers (38 percent) had moderate skill gap compared to 37.3 percent low, and 23.5 percent high skill gap. The highest skill gap was found in case of separating mature seed from a mixture of mature and immature seed. The computed practice gap of the farmers ranged from 5.78 to 69.65 with a mean of 36.69. The majority (58 percent) of the farmers had low to moderate level of practice gap compared to 42 percent high to very high practice gap. The practice gap of phosphorus fertilizer application was ranked first compared to other practices. Five characteristics namely education, economic motivation, communication exposure, cosmopoliteness and attitude towards recommended technology of the farmers had significant contribution to their knowledge gap. These variables ⚫ together explained 67.4 percent of the variation in the knowledge gap. Among these, economic motivation contributed the highest (45.1 percent) proportion of the variation followed by communication exposure, cosmopoliteness and attitude towards recommended technology. Only two characteristics namely, training experience and communication exposure of the farmers had significant contribution to their skill gap. These variables together explained 49.5 percent of the variation in the skill gap. Training experience contributed the highest (47.2 percent) portion of the variation followed by communication exposure. Four characteristics of the farmers such as risk orientation, attitude towards recommended technology, education, and land ownership had significant contribution to their practice gap. These variables together explained 79.2 percent of the variation in the practice gap. Among these, risk orientation contributed the highest portion (75.3 percent) of the variation followed by attitude towards recommended technology, education and land ownership. Financial crisis was the first ranking constraint in the production of modern transplanted varieties of aman rice followed in descending order by high price of insecticides, high price of fertilizer and non-availability of power tillers at the time of land preparation. Based on the findings, some recommendations were put forward to minimize the technological gap in modern rice cultivation particularly at farmers, level.