Search results

Farmer organizations (FOs) can elevate many of the production- and marketing-related challenges by ensuring access to technology, farming information and loan for inputs and mechanization. This study assesses the major factors that affect the participation in FOs by the smallholder rice farmers in Bangladesh and evaluates the impacts of the participation on rice yield and production efficiency.

The present study used primary data collected from 1,000 smallholder rice farmers in northwest Bangladesh, consisting of 250 farmers those participated in an organization. This study utilized a sample selection stochastic production frontier (SPF) method, a combination of the conventional SPF and the Heckman's sample selection model, to control for biases stemming from observed and unobserved attributes.

This study demonstrates that participation in an organization is significantly affected by smallholder rice farmers' education, occupation, family size, household income, land ownership and the location where they reside. At the same time, the participation status affects the productivity of smallholder farmers. Findings indicate that farmers who participated in an organization had higher rice yield (11% more) and were technically more efficient (1.4 percentage points higher) compared to farmers who did not participate.

Since this study was carried out with representative sampled farmers from northwest Bangladesh, the findings may not represent all farmers' perceptions of FOs in the country.

Even though more than 200,000 FOs are currently in operation, knowledge regarding the effectiveness of Bangladesh's FOs is limited. Notably, this study used a relatively new method, sample selection SPF model, to investigate the impact of FOs on the production efficiency of smallholder rice farmers in northwest Bangladesh. Therefore, this study contributes to the literature in elucidating the factors affecting participation in FOs and its impact on rice yield and efficiency. Since FOs have been somewhat ineffective in their role as service providers in Bangladesh, this study’s results will guide policymakers to intervene more successfully regarding the changes needed.

This paper aims to assesses impacts of perceived weather changes (i.e. temperature, wind and rainfall) at the farm household level on income, poverty, wheat yield and use of timber and non-timber forest products in Pakistan’s Himalayan region. Mountains are fragile ecosystems – particularly for farming and in the context of climate change. Yet for many such geographies, there is limited empirical understanding of the potential impacts of climate change.

It uses a comprehensive field survey of 500 farmers from the Gilgit-Baltistan territory (comprising seven districts Ghizer, Gilgit, Diamer, Astore, Skardu, Ghance and Hunza-Nagar). A multivariate probit model first assesses the factors associated with perceived weather changes by farm households and a propensity score matching (PSM) approach then estimates the impacts of the perceived changes in temperature, wind and rainfall.

The empirical results show that an overwhelming majority of the farmers experience climate change, which primarily has adverse impacts on household income, poverty levels and wheat yields and increases dependence on both timber and non-timber forest products.

This paper contributes to the scanty literature on the climate change in the Himalayan region of Pakistan.

Constraints associated with public agricultural extension services imply that farmers increasingly rely on input providers for agricultural innovations and knowledge. Yet such providers are typically commercial profit-making agents and may have an incentive to suggest relatively costly inputs and/or high rates. The purpose of this paper is to look into the case of Bangladesh and the role of fertilizer traders in terms of farmers’ decisions on which fertilizer to apply and at what rate. Using primary data, the authors examine farmers’ chemical fertilizer use and the associated rice production efficiency, based on different information sources (fertilizer traders, government extension agents or own/peer experience).

Using primary data, the present study estimates an ordered probit model and production functions separately based on whether or not a farmer relied on information from fertilizer traders or own experience and government extension agents, and examines the efficiency score of each type of farmer.

The findings demonstrate that the resource-poor farmers rely more on traders’ suggestions for fertilizer application than public extension – but the actual fertilizer information source has no significant effect on the production efficiency of the rice farmers. This study, therefore, does not find exploitative behavior of fertilizer traders. Thus, this study concludes that small rural traders in Bangladesh are working as agricultural extension agents and provide necessary fertilizer application information to resource-poor farmers.

This is a case study based on Bangladesh – an emerging economy in South Asia. The findings of the study may not be generalized for other countries.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that confirms the role of agricultural input sellers as the extension agent in developing countries.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the rice consumption by rice grain types under the rising income scenario in Bangladesh. Generally, with an increase in income, households tend to consume more food items that are high-value, enriched foods and protein, such as meat and fish, by substituting for cereals. However, consumers also substitute when it comes to grain quality. For example, cereals, such as rice, are available in a range of qualities from the ordinary type (coarse-grain) to the premium type (fine grain). The authors postulate that as household incomes increase, households may consume more premium-type rice (or fine-grain rice), while overall consuming less rice or fewer carbohydrates.

Using the Bangladesh Household Income and Expenditure Survey 2000, 2005, and 2010, and applying multivariate probit and seemingly unrelated regression estimation procedures, this study quantifies the impact of income, household demographics, and urbanization on rice consumption by rice grain types (coarse-grain, medium-grain, and fine-grain types).

The results show that urban, wealthy households and, households headed by educated heads and spouses, are more likely to consume fine-grain rice than their counterparts.

After yield, grain type is the second most important factor for farmers when considering the adoption of a new variety. The price of rice and other cereals is highly associated with the grain type. This study concludes that plant breeding programs of major cereals, such as rice and wheat, should take into account the consumer grain-type preferences when developing new varieties.

Population and income are growing rapidly in South Asia, spurring the demand for food in general, and the demand for higher-valued food items in particular. This poses particular food security challenges for densely populated and emerging countries, such as Bangladesh. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the increasing and changing cereal consumption pattern in developing countries using Bangladesh as a case.

Using Bangladesh’s Household Income and Expenditure Survey 2000, 2005a, b data, and applying a two-stage quadratic almost ideal system estimation procedure, the present study separately estimates the expenditure elasticities for rural and urban households for five food items: rice, wheat and rice and wheat products, pulses, fish and vegetables. Second, using the estimated elasticities, projected population and the per capita GDP growth rates, this study projects the consumption of the sampled food items by 2030.

This study demonstrates that in 2030 both rural and urban households in Bangladesh will consume more wheat, pulses and fish, but the urban households will consume less rice compared to the current levels of consumption in 2015.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study on developing countries that examines the evolving food items consumption separately by rural and urban households. Using Bangladesh as a case, this study warns that with rapid urbanization and income growth, developing countries need to supply more wheat, fish and pulses. The provision of the maximum usage of scarce resources, such as arable land, the development and dissemination of improved varieties and the best management practices must be ensured to boost domestic food production in developing countries to cater to the future evolving food consumption.

International commodity prices have escalated to an unprecedented level since 2008. Although commodity prices have declined recently, prices are still high compared to the pre-2008 levels. Combining this market phenomenon with Bangladesh Government’s Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) data sets HIES 2005 and HIES 2010, and applying the seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) estimation process, the purpose of this paper is to examine paddy rice marketing, and the cereal and non-cereal food expenditure behavior of rural smallholders in Bangladesh under rising commodity prices.

This study uses information collected by the Government of Bangladesh and applies two-step Heckman-type selection model estimation procedure, first to estimate total rice production by the rice production self-sufficiency status of the household. Second, the study estimates the paddy marketing behavior by the households by their rice self-sufficiency status under rising commodity price regime applying SUR estimation process combing with Heckman’s selection model estimation procedure.

Empirical findings demonstrate that there was no positive assertion between higher paddy rice prices and paddy rice marketing by the rural smallholders. Rather, under the rising commodity price regime, smallholders significantly reduced consumption expenditure on high food value-enriched non-cereal food items to adjust to the market shocks.

This is a Bangladesh-based case study. Individual country-level case studies should be conducted in order to generalize the findings of the present study.

The present study warns that the market volatility may discourage farm households to market their cereals more due to uncertain future. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first attempt to explore the cereal marketing behavior of the farm households in Bangladesh under commodity price hikes by the rice production self-sufficiency status of the farm households.