Determinants of Training Need of the Pineapple Growers for Boosting Production in Hilly Areas of Sreemangal Upazila Under Moulvibazar District

Training is a tool to increase production both vertically and horizontally through enhanced skills of the farmers. The focus of the study was to determine and describe the training need of the pineapple growers in a hilly area of Sylhet region and explores the relationship between the selected characteristics of growers and training need. Data were collected from randomly selected 75 pineapple growers out of 228 of three unions namely Sreemangal, Ashidron, and Sindhurkhan of Sreemangal upazila under Moulvibazar district using a pre-tested interview schedule from 1 September to 2 October 2020. Through Focus Group Discussion (FGD) with the growers, a total of 12 different aspects of pineapple cultivation were identified as inadequately skilled for modern pineapple cultivation. For quantification of training need, each respondent was asked to answer the extent of training need against each of those aspects. Results revealed that most of the pineapple growers (58.7%) had medium training need while 29.3% had high and only 12.0% had low training need. The top five training need aspects of pineapple cultivation were appropriate amount and time of fertilizer application, modern method of insect–pest identification and control, soil moisture conservation technique, and preventive measure of fruit sunburn. Correlation analysis indicated that age (-0.272*), educational (-0.526**), annual income (-0.269*), experience of pineapple cultivation (-0.455**), knowledge about pineapple cultivation (-0.807**), training received (-0.558**), and use of information source (-0.331**) were found negatively significant with their training need. Extension service providers should come forward to facilitate access of need-based information and skills to the pineapple growers or at least do their best alternative based on resource allocation for improvement of yield and production of pineapple in the hilly areas of Sylhet region.