Abstract
Turkey is a highly promising poultry species but has not been explored in Bangladesh in spite of its greater potential. To meet the increasing domestic demand, the productivity of poultry sector needs to be increased significantly where turkey farming can be a good option. The present study aimed at determining the adoption of turkey farming and its prospects at farmers' level. Data were collected through face to face interview, focus group discussions, key informant interviews and case studies from six villages of Joypurhat district as this district is exposed with turkey farming with the help of few NGOs like JAKAS foundation. Total number of 2928 farmers of the selected villages constituted the population and out of them 293 farmers (10 percent) were selected by proportionate
random sampling technique as sample of the study. The data collection was done from October, 2019 to February, 2020. The selected sixteen characteristics of the respondents
were considered as independent variables while adoption and perceived prospects of turkey farming were the dependent variables. Adoption of turkey farming was measured
on the basis of their decision whether they used to turkey farming or not. However, perceived prospects of turkey farming was determined based on farmers' responses against prospects of turkey farming. Moreover, SWOT analysis was done to explore the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of turkey farming to determine prospects
of turkey farming. Findings showed that about one-third (35 percent) farmers adopted turkey farming and the majority (65 percent) of the farmers of the study area was reported
with no adoption of turkey farming. Annual income, attitude towards turkey farming, innovativeness, extension media contact, knowledge on turkey farming, decision making ability, and willingness of the farmers to adopt turkey farming were the important contributing factors for adoption of turkey farming. The prospects score of the respondent ranged from 55 to 119 against a possible score of 25 - 125 with a mean and standard
deviation of 73.44 and 14.43, respectively. More than three-fifths (64.2 percent) of the respondents perceived that turkey farming has medium prospects, while 19.8 percent perceived as low prospects and only 16.0 percent perceived high prospects of turkey farming. Among the sixteen characteristics, fifteen namely age, level of education, land
possess, annual family income, attitude towards turkey farming, innovativeness, social mobility, training exposure, extension media contact, organizational participation, knowledge on turkey farming, risk orientation, experience in turkey farming, inputs availability, decision making ability and willingness of turkey farming had positive and significant relationship with the perceived prospects of turkey farming. Among these independent variables willingness, social mobility, decision making ability, age, attitude
towards turkey farming, organizational participation and level of education jointly explained 52.5 percent of variation in farmers' perception of prospects of turkey farming. The farmers also perceived eight strengths, six weaknesses, seven opportunities and six threats in pursuing turkey farming. They also identified some problems such as, lack of
proper training, poor marketing facility, unavailability of veterinary services, poor extension program, unavailability of inputs and incompatible to compete with regular poultry as major problems for turkey farming. However, the strengths and opportunities of turkey farming should be consolidated; weaknesses and threats should be minimized
and problems should be addressed by the government collaborating with NGOs and
private organizations. DLS and other concerned GO and NGOs along with private entrepreneurs need to take necessary steps to increase adoption of turkey farming and
undertake special program on various risk averting strategies for the development of turkey farming that might contribute in adding a momentum in the poultry sector of Bangladesh.