Abstract
The study highlighted different socio-economic aspects of soybean cultivation in Noakhali and Laxmipur district of Bangladesh. The issues were: cost and return of soybean and its competing crops cultivation, competitive and comparative advantage of soybean production, constraints to higher production, and farmers attitudes towards soybean cultivation in Bangladesh. The average yield of soybean, groundnut, cowpea and grasspea were 1813kg/ha, 1473kg/ha, 871kg/ha and 1076kg/ha, respectively. The net return received from soybean, groundnut, cowpea and grasspea cultivation were estimated at Tk. 25599/ha, Tk. 17047/ha 11805 and Tk. 8825/ha, respectively. The average benefits cost ratios of soybean, groundnut, cowpea and grasspea production were 1.43, 1.26, 1.28 and 1.29 over full cost, respectively. The estimated DRC value for soybean production was found 0.55 which clearly indicate that the production of soybean in Bangladesh has comparative advantage rather than import. Functional analysis showed that TSP, MP, gypsum and pesticide use had positive significant impact on soybean cultivation. Although the cultivation of soybean was found to be profitable, many farmers showed negative attitudes toward its production. Scarcity of chemical fertilizers with its peak price, lack of HYV seed availability, lack of technical knowledge and natural calamities were found as the barriers of soybean crops expansion in Noakhali and Laxmipur district of Bangladesh.J. Bangladesh Agril. Univ. 13(2): 265-272, December 2015
Highlights
Soybean is a high value and profitable crop
Soybean cultivation at farm level is found to be profitable since the average benefit cost ratio (BCR) on investment is 1.43 on full cost basis for soybean which indicates at farm level soybean production is more profitable
The farm level cultivation of soybean and its competing crops is remunerative to the farmers as the BCR of all crops are higher than one
Summary
Soybean is a high value and profitable crop. The economic viability of soybean production is determined by the commercial utilization of both its sub-products, meal and oil, which, account for about two thirds and one third of the crop’s economic value, respectively. Out of the total cropped areas of 14.418 million ha, oil crops occupy about 0.366 million ha and the total production of the country stands at 0.786 million tones. Considering the ever increasing demand of edible oil of our country, it is extremely needed to increase the total production of oil crops by fitting the existing cropping patterns by replacing the high yielding variety (HYV) with low yielding varieties through improving management practices as well as increasing the area of cultivation where ever possible. Different soya foods like soya milk, soya biscuits, soya chapatti can be prepared from soybean. These crops can fulfill a great part of oil gap in the country. Medical, industrial and agricultural importance (Hossain et al, 1992)
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