In the early 1980s, disease susceptibility in short-season lentil landraces began to limit productivity in areas where relay cropping took place in Bangladesh. Since then, several improved high-yielding lentil varieties, which are resistant to rust and blight and suitable in the relay cropping system, have been released jointly by national and international research centers. This study used three methods, namely a panel of experts, a survey of 1,000 households where the respondents named the variety they used, and DNA fingerprinting of seed samples collected from all lentil plots cultivated by survey households to estimate adoption. Double hurdle and instrumental variables regression methods were applied to the household survey and DNA fingerprinting data to identify determinants of adoption and measure their impacts. Of particular interest was whether estimates of adoption, determinants of adoption and impacts varied by method of variety identification. Results showed that the expert panel overestimated the adoption of more recent varieties while about 89 percent of the farmer-reported varieties were accurate, as verified by DNA fingerprinting. DNA fingerprinting appears to have little advantage for estimating the level of adoption in this case, where few varieties of lentils are found, local variety names do not exist, and most seed is obtained through a formal system. However, even under these conditions, determinants of adoption vary by identification method, and use of farmer-reported information on the variety can lead to erroneous conclusions about determinants of adoption. Because recent breeding efforts have focused on taste and cooking considerations, yield impacts were not significantly different from zero.

The paper investigates the influencing factors of women micro-entrepreneurship development in rural Bangladesh. The analysis based on empirical investigation carried out in northern part of Bangladesh. Data were collected from 248 women micro-entrepreneurs and 132 non-entrepreneurs. Present study adopts three basic aspects such as personal attributes, family affairs and external environment to evaluate their contribution towards women entrepreneurship. Applying "probit" model, the study finds among various personal attributes, freedom of work and desire for higher social status significantly influenced to participate in micro-entrepreneurship. Family hardship also turns likely to be involved in micro-entrepreneurship. Among various external factors, access to credit, access to entrepreneurship training, membership with development organizations, access to information and favorable infrastructure depicts inspiring factors in participating micro-entrepreneurship. Study also indentifies several challenging factors toward smooth development of women micro-entrepreneurship. The paper provides suggestions for strengthening women entrepreneurship development process in rural Bangladesh.

Bangladesh has made impressive progress in agriculture sector in the last three decades and has almost be-come self-sufficient in food grain production. This is a tremendous achievement owing to its small territory and huge population and this was achieved through agricultural mechanization and modernization. Irrigation is one of the leading inputs has direct influence to increase yield, food grains production and plays vital role for ensuring food security in Bangladesh. The present study examined the growth of irrigated area and its impact on food grain production during last three decades. Time series data were used for the study. Differ-ent statistical methods such as mean, percentage, linear and exponential growth model were applied for get-ting meaningful findings. Various technologies have been used for irrigating crops which have contributed to rapid expansion of irrigated area. The conventional irrigation methods (Low Lift Pump, Dhone, Swing Bas-ket, Treadle Pump etc.) were replaced by modern methods (i.e Deep Tube Well and Shallow Tube Well). In addition, surface water irrigation also sharply declined, losing its importance due to lack of new surface irri-gation project and the ineffectiveness of earlier project. Groundwater covered 77 percent of total irrigated area and major (62%) extractions occurred through Shallow Tube Wells (STWs). The rapid expansion of ground water irrigation in respect to STWs irrigation was due to government’s withdrawal on restrictions on tube well setting rule, encouraging private sector and the cost effectiveness of Chinese engine which have been affordable to the small and medium farmers. Irrigated area thus, increased by about three times and cropping intensity also increased from 154 to 176 percent. Boro rice, an irrigated crop, consumed 73 percent of the total crop irrigation and contributed to a greater extent in total rice production in Bangladesh. Boro rice alone contributed to 55 percent of total food grain and was also highest (3.44 MT per hectare) compared to aus rice (1.66 MT per hectare) and aman rice (1.99 MT per hectare) per unit production. Consequently, the cultivated area of boro rice increased by 1168 to 4068 thousand hectares. The higher productivity of boro rice has almost helped the nation to meet her food requirements (about 24 Million MT). Boro rice production was highly correlated (r = .978) with irrigated area. Expansion of one hectare of irrigated area added 3.22 MT of boro rice in Bangladesh. Finally, the study suggested for expansion of irrigated areas (ground water and surface water), adoption of modern technologies and formulation of farmers’ friendly policy

This paper evaluates the welfare impacts of microcredit programmes and the activities of non-governmental organization microfinance service providers in state-designated poor counties of Shaanxi, China. Study results suggest positive impacts on microcredit programme participants with respect to increased income (by 4.07 per cent), general expenditures (6.45 per cent) and savings (3.13 per cent). Top income quartile participants experience more benefits, and women gain greater access to decision-making. These findings suggest that successful and sustainable microcredit intervention improves lives and plays an important role in improving rural economy, possibly reducing inequality between rural and urban areas in China.

This paper verifies the statement that “women contribute greatly to growing crops year-round, but their work is not recognized” through in-depth empirical investigation of their participation in rice and vegetable production and farm decision-making processes in Northwest Bangladesh. Interviews were held with 240 randomly selected couples (husband and wife interviewed separately) to document their views of the female’s participation in crop farming activities and farm and household decision-making. The findings reveal that women play a substantial role in farming and are increasingly involved in farm management, but they are generally overlooked or under-valued by their male counterparts. Looking at crop-specific participation, among 18 different activities of the rice production cycle, men recognized that their spouse had “high” participation in three activities, “strong” in one, “moderate” in five, and “weak” in nine. A similar result was found for activities in vegetable production. In both cases, men’s recognition differed from that reported by their spouses. Logistic regression modeling against eleven variables (selected from the intersectionality and patriarchy literature) revealed six statistically significant variables that influence men to consult with their wives regarding farm decisions. The dominant variables were spouse education (years of schooling), spouse Non-governmental organization (NGO) membership, and the number of hours per day that the spouse spent working on the farm. The article provides a new insight into family dynamics in household and farm decision-making processes. The collection and analysis of both counterparts’ (husband and wife) views provides empirical evidence that not only is women’s participation in agricultural activities and decision-making under-recognized, but that higher education and being involved in NGO activities have a positive influence on male perceptions of women’s contributions. While these findings may not be universally applicable, the framework (using intersectionality and patriarchy indicators together with logistic regression modeling) is highly adaptable. Application in other parts of Bangladesh would reveal perceptions in those regions, and would support a more comprehensive approach to future policy intervention towards gender integration into crop farming in line with promoting women’s education and NGO participation.