A study was conducted in the year 2008-2009 to estimate the farm-size-specific productivity and technical efficiency of all rice crops. Farm-size- specific technical efficiency scores were estimated using stochastic production frontiers. There were wide of variations of productivity among farms, where large farms exhibited the highest productivity. Gross return was the highest for small farms and net return was the highest for marginal farms. The lowest net return or the highest cost of production was accrued from both the highest wage rate and highest amount of labour used in medium farms. The marginal farms experienced the highest benefit-cost ratio (BCR) followed by small and medium farms. Average technical efficiency for large, medium, small, marginal and all farms were respectively 0.88, 0.92, 0.94, 0.75 and 0.88. There were significant technical inefficiency effects in the production of rice for marginal farms only. In this case, production cannot be increased by increasing efficiency with the existing technology except in marginal farms. The application of efficient management system would be able to increase production in the marginal farms. For other farms, increased managerial capacity is not enough for increased production, rather new investment and advanced technology are needed to increase production in these farms. On an average, farmers could increase 12 percent output with existing inputs and production technology. Fertiliser, manure, irrigation cost, insecticide cost, area under production and experience were important factors to increase production. In the technical inefficiency effect, age, education and family size had positive impact on efficiency effect, whereas land under household had negative impact on efficiency effect. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/agric.v10i2.13132 The Agriculturists 2012; 10(2) 9-19
The study aimed at assessing the in-store losses of rice caused by biotic and abiotic factors in the storage structures/containers at farmers' level. The farmers' suggested ways of reducing in-store losses of rice are also discussed. A total of 96 villages covering 26 Upazilas under 14 civil districts across all the divisions of the country were selected for present investigation. The districts were put under five different regions to capture the dimensions of study. In all, 1360 samples of Aus, Aman and Boro rice farmers were selected randomly and purposively from the study areas and put into marginal, small, medium and large farm category based on their land ownerships. Data were collected through pre-tested questionnaires. Different traditional rice storage structures/containers like Dole, Berh, Inside-house Gola, Outside-house Gola, Steel/Plastic drums, Motka, Gunny bag and Plastic/Polythene bags were commonly used by farmers in the study areas. The storage time of rice varied from 3.05 to 7.24 months irrespective of rice, farm and region with the overall average being 5.5 months. Significant losses in stored rice occurred through the activities of both biotic and abiotic factors. The average in-store losses occurred for Aus, Aman and Boro rice were respectively 3.68, 3.80 and 4.12% with the aggregated average being 3.92%. The average in-store losses of rice in large, medium, small and marginal farmers were 4.48, 3.92, 4.0 and 3.59% respectively. The in-store losses occurred in regions 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 were 3. 31, 5.23, 3.62, 4.44 and 3.25% respectively. The farmers suggested a number of ways for reducing in-store losses of rice including training on capacity building and awareness for safe storage, credit for constructing durable storage structure, construction of common storage structures at village/union level, preventive measures against biotic and abiotic factors, supplying farmers with durable storage containers and keeping them well ahead informed about the natural calamities.
This study examined the impact on income of small-scale beef cattle enterprise in Pabna and Sirajganj districts. Data were obtained from 180 cattle fattening participant farmers and 180 non participant farmers from two areas in January and December 2014. Data were collected through the use of structured survey schedules and analyzed by the use of descriptive statistical tools such as means and percentages and also paired t-statistics and chow test were used for the data analysis The Double-Difference (DD) estimator is used to estimate changes in income from before to after benefiting from beef cattle agribusiness between participant farmers and non-participant farmers. Result shows that the net farm income of beef cattle agribusiness entrepreneur increases from BDT 6791.17 before participant to BDT 10289.65 after participant of cattle fattening. There was also an increase in the net farm income of the non-participant farmers from BDT 6750.01to BDT 8437.51during beef cattle agribusiness study. On the average, the net farm income of participant farmers increased by 51.52% and non-participant increased by only 25.0%. The mean increased income was significantly different between participants and non-participant farmers of beef cattle fattening at 10% level of significance. Chow test analysis showed a significant change between the coefficients and intercept of the respondents' income implying that beef cattle agribusiness contributed positively to the increased income realized by the farmers over that of non-farmers. Hence, it can be conducted that beef cattle agribusiness has positive impact on income of the farmers. The study recommends intensive support services from government and non government institutions to improve the performance of the beef cattle agribusiness.
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