FACTORS AFFECTING THE ADOPTION OF BIOFERTILIZERS IN CHITWAN DISTRICT, NEPAL P. Dhakal 1 ; S. Devkota 1 and R.H. Timilsina 1 1 Faculty of Agriculture, Agriculture and Forestry University, Rampur, Chitwan, Nepal. ABSTRACT: This study was conducted in 2018 to analyze the factors affecting the adoption of biofertilizers in Chitwan district of Nepal. Chitwan district was selected for this study as it was one of the major commercial farming region of Nepal. The study area was divided into six clusters (Rapti, Kalika, Khairehani, Ratnanagar, Bharatpur, and Madi). Simple random sampling technique was used to select the 200 samples from clusters. Semi structured interview schedule was used to collect the primary information from sampled households whereas key informant interview was used to collect the information from the stakeholders. Adoption of biofertilizers was used as dependent variable and age, gender, education, primary occupation, farming experience, farm income, farm size, training and memberships in organization of respondent were used as independent variables. Forward LR method in Binary logistic regression model have shown primary occupation, farm size and training had significant effect on adoption of biofertilizer. About 40% of farmers were found to apply the biofertilizers. Knowledge gap in farmers about the use of biofertilizers and tradition of using chemical fertilizers were found to be the prime factors for lack of adoption of biofertilizers in Chitwan. Keywords: Biofertilizers, adoption, factors, knowledge gap 1. INTRODUCTION: The increasing population is creating the considerable pressure on land and other natural resources causing serious impacts on agriculture ecosystem. There is great challenge to increase the level of production from the limited agricultural lands. Nepalese economy is based on agriculture and at present 65.6 % of total population is engaged in agriculture for their survival and economic benefit (MoAD, 2014). For agriculture, major source of nutrients is given through either farm yard manure or inorganic fertilizers. It is estimated that the world demand for total fertilizer nutrients (Nitrogen, Phosphorous, and Potash) will increase by 1.8 percent per annum from 2014 to 2018 (FAO, 2015). Worldwide, the consumption of fertilizers is largest in East Asia followed up by South Asia (FAO, 2015). In Nepal, annual sales of chemical fertilizers were 232189 Mt. (Urea 145622 Mt, DAP 81520 Mt and Potash 5046 Mt.). Among these, 8861 Mt. (Urea 5679 Mt, DAP 2645 Mt and Potash 537 Mt) were consumed in Chitwan district (MoAD, 2014). In Nepal, availability and affordability of inorganic fertilizers at farm level have been ensured only through imports and subsidies