Factors affecting productivity and efficiency of rice production in haor area in Bangladesh: likely impact on food security

Type Thesis or Dissertation - Master of Science
Title Factors affecting productivity and efficiency of rice production in haor area in Bangladesh: likely impact on food security
Author(s)
Publication (Day/Month/Year) 2014
Abstract
The haor region, a wetland and internationally important ecosystem having unique geological characteristics, comprising of Netrakona, Sylhet, Sunamganj, Habiganj, Kishoreganj and Brahmanbaria districts is resourceful for Boro cultivation, but severely lags behind the mainstream development process of the country. This study focused on two major aspects such as Boro rice cultivation and the food security of the people living in haor areas. It aimed at addressing the factors influencing Boro rice production, its efficiency and the overall food security phenomena in the concerned area. The research is fully based on primary data. Cobb-Douglas stochastic production frontier was estimated to measure the technical efficiency and to identify the core factors of Boro cultivation. The average farm-specific technical efficiency was found to be 86.54% indicating the unused potentiality of farmers to enhance the Boro production on an average by 13.46% without increasing present levels of inputs. The result revealed that mechanisation, irrigation, fertiliser, experience and farm size had positive and significant impact on Boro production while human labour and education had negative influence. In order to boost farm efficiency, farm experience and farm size should be increased and larger families should be encouraged in rice cultivation. With a view to measuring the food security status both binary and multinomial logistic regression models had been fitted. First, direct calorie intake method was used to assess the food security. Per capita per day calorie and protein intakes were also used as a measuring criterion for the degree of food security. A miserable food security condition had been explored while it was even alarming in case of protein based food security. Around 37.3% and 77.3% of total haor people were found out to be food insecure on the basis of calorie and protein intake respectively. Business and fishing as profession, large farm size and higher off-farm income were found to have significantly positive impact while borrowed capital used in Boro cultivation had negative impact on food security based on calorie intake. About 40% of haor people were observed to be food secure based on calorie intake only. The single level multinomial logistic regression model revealed that young age of the household heads, large farm size, higher off-farm income and shifting the primary occupation from agriculture to fishing or business had positive influence to ensure better food security in the haor areas. The study suggested several policy implications, including ubiquitous mechanisation, enlarging farm size and involving in business or fishing as off-farm activities, aiming to overall sustainable development of the haor areas emphasizing on Boro rice cultivation and targeting food security.

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