Abstract
The study was conducted in two districts of coastal areas of Bangladesh for
assessing the performance of research extension linkage towards adoption of salt
tolerant rice varieties. Four villages from both Shaymnagar upazila under Satkhira
district and Paikgachha upazila under Khulna district were purposively selected as
the study locations. The target population of the study consisted of researchers,
extension personnel and farmers who are involved in technology development,
dissemination and utilization of salt tolerant rice varieties. Three organizations viz.
Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI), Bangladesh Institute of Nuclear
Agriculture (BINA) and Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) were selected
purposively for the study. A total of 97 researchers and DAE personnel were
purposively selected as population. Out of them; 40 researchers (20 from each
organization) and 20 DAE personnel (about 60 percent) were selected as sample.
On the other hand, total population of 1,255 farmers (250 strong linkage farmers
and 1005 weak linkage farmers) from both the upazila were also selected
purposively. Out of them, 200 farmers (100 having strong linkage and 100 with
weak linkage) were randomly selected as sample for the study. The linkage
performance was measured in three dimensions like, planning performance,
management and implementation performance, monitoring and evaluation
performance. The results indicated that regarding planning performance, the
researchers and DAE personnel had strong linkage performance which was 92.5
percent and 80 percent respectively. In measurement of management and
implementation performance, and monitoring and evaluation performance, the
respondents had strong linkages which were 90 percent and 80 percent, and 90
percent and 75 percent, respectively. However, the relationships between the
selected characteristics of the researchers and DAE personnel, five variables were
found significant such as the authority activities, contact with information media,
linkage activity, financial support and team work. While, in case of individual
contribution of linkage performance, linkage activity showed the highest
contribution (18.8 percent), team work showed 16.4 percent and job satisfaction
showed only 4.1 percent in explaining variation in linkage performance. In case of
strong linkage farmers, the highest number (60 percent) of the respondents had
high adoption of salt tolerant rice varieties, while one third (33 percent) had
medium and 7 percent had low adoption of salt tolerant rice varieties. However, in
case of weak linkage farmers, less than half (45 percent) of the respondents had
high adoption of salt tolerant rice varieties, while 33 percent had medium and 22
percent had low adoption of salt tolerant rice varieties. Based on the findings, it
may be concluded that overall research extension linkage performance was strong
which influenced the adoption of salt tolerant rice varieties among the strong
linkage farmers. Thus, it is recommended to enhance linkage performance among
the strong and weak linkage farmers that might contribute to enhance the extent of
adoption of salt tolerant rice varieties in coastal areas of Bangladesh.