Abstract:
Farmers’ acceptance of a biofertilizer is mainly determined by the crop response to it and the
socio-economic aspects such as the economic feasibility, awareness of the farmers and
government policies. Although biofertilizer is an alternative to inorganic fertilizer, it is still
underutilized in Sri Lanka. Lack of knowledge on biofertilizer would be a constraint to
popularize biofertilizer application to overcome the alleged hazardous effects of inorganic
fertilizers. Therefore, the objective of this study was to assess the perception of farmers on
utilizing biofertilizer for rice cultivation and, farmer friendliness and economic viability of
introduced novel inoculation method, developed through our previous research work and was
introduced to the farmers through a handout. One hundred farmers were randomly selected
from Medawachchiya Divisional Secretariat (DS) division in Anuradhapura district. Data was
collected through pre-structured questionnaires and, focus group discussions and analyzed
through one sample Wilcoxon sign rank test and Pearson’s correlation coefficient. None of the
farmers had been using biofertilizer in the test group up to the time of study jn Medawachchiya
DS division. Forty four percent (44%) of farmers were unaware of the importance and
constraints related to the biofertilizer application in rice cultivation while, 46% farmers were
not aware about commercially available biofertilizer. According to the results of one sample
Wilcoxon sign rank test, 82% of the farmers were not ready to adopt biofertilizer application for
rice cultivation directly without an assurance on unreduced yield with the biofertilizer in
comparison with inorganic fertilizer (p= 0.447). Sixty three percent (63%) of farmers were
willing to apply biofertilizer after observing results of pre-users and 45% farmers were willing
to apply biofertilizer in a small land area before applying it in large scale. A strong correlation
was detected between agreement levels for user friendliness and economic profitability of the
suggested method (r=0.828 at 0.01 probability level). Moreover, income level of the farmers and
the cumulative impact of production factors elicited a significantly positive correlation with the
agreement level on economic profitability of the suggested method (r=0.230, r= 0.240
respectively at 0.05 significance level). In conclusion, introduced novel inoculation method was
highly perceived by all farmers of the test group due to its potential user-friendliness and
economic viability. However, pre-trials and government intervention were preferred by farmers
indicating their expectation for assurance on yield to accept the novel method.
