Farm Level Evaluation of T. Aman Rice Cultivation In Selected Saline and Non-Saline Areas of Bangladesh

Abstract

This comparative study was conducted within a selected coastal empoldered area (as saline area) and other selected non-saline districts of Bangladesh, during the period 2011-12 with a view to comparing the profitability and technical efficiency of T. Aman rice growers. The study revealed that T. Aman rice production was found profitable in both of saline and non-saline but the realistic favor the views that economic return is quite in non-saline areas. The returns per taka investment in both study areas were 1.75 and 1.82, respectively. The estimated result showed that the average level of technical efficiencies of the sample farmers were about 70.70% and 87.50% for the saline and non-saline farms, respectively implying that given the existing technology and level of inputs, the output could be increased by 29% and 12%, respectively. Farmer's education and training had positive significant effect on T. Aman rice production. The age of the sampled farmers' had significant positive impact on farming efficiency in the non-saline farms but it was negative on the saline area. The salinity had significant impact on the farming efficiency of T. Aman rice farmers'. The farmers of the non- saline areas were technically more efficient than the saline area which resulted higher net return from T. Aman rice farming. Keywords- Saline & non-saline areas, T. Aman rice, profitability and technical efficiency I. Introduction The arable land in Bangladesh is about 61 percent of the total land area. The total cultivated area was 8.03 million hectares in 2003 but it reduced to 7.73 million hectares in 2008 (BBS 2012) due to urbanization, industrialization and housing for increasing population. The decreasing trend of arable land requires intensive use of land to produce more food for the extra million future generations. Moreover, out of total cultivated areas, 2.75 million ha is single cropped, 3.92 million ha double cropped and 1.28 million ha triple cropped (BBS 2010). The economic development of Bangladesh is inextricably linked with the performance of Agricultural sector. Agriculture provides nearly about 48.1% of her labour forces (BBS 2011). This sector contributes about 20.24% (BBS 2011) to the GDP of the economy as a whole of which crop sector share is about 12%. Rice is the dominating crop sector of agriculture and the largest contributor to farm income of the majority of farm population. However, it is a vital source of non farm income related to trade and commerce of a large segment of the economy. Rice is the most strategic commodity in Bangladesh accounting for 70% calorie intake and about 35% of household expenditure. Out of 7.97 million ha cultivated area, about its 77% devoted to rice (Salam 2012). Rice is being grown in the three seasons namely, Aus, Aman and Boro covering 1.11, 5.65 and 4.77 million ha of land, respectively (BBS 2011). However, the country contains a large area considered as coastal area. The coastal area of Bangladesh represents an area of 47,211 km 2 , 32 percent of the country's geographical area, wherein 35 million people i.e. 28 percent of the country's total population live at 6.85 million households. In terms of administrative consideration, 19 districts out of 64 are considered as coastal district (http://equitybd.org/newsletter/english/Issue-5/Disaster_BD.pdf). Moreover, the coastal area is suffering from salinity problem for rice cultivation. The large farmers cultivated rice-cum-bagda pattern with the saline water. The productivity of rice is very much lower compare to the other areas of the country. Salinity is a problem for livestock's and forestry also. The marginal farmers' preferred cultivate rice to shrimp as there was alternative of fresh water golda with rice. But, they could not as the large farmers were devoted to shrimp culture with saline water. Realizing the negative impact of saline water on environment and society, people as well as the government recently restricted the intrusion of saline water into the empoldered areas. As rice takes the monopoly position in the staple food items of the country and salinity has great impact on rice production and environment, the people of the polder 31 of Khulna district banned the intrusion of saline water and brought more land under the cultivation of T. Aman rice through rice-cum-golda pattern instead of rice-cum-bagda. Due to the restriction of saline water intrusion the soil salinity decreased from previous level (from 29.57 ds/m to 22.06 ds/m). But the land is not free from the salinity effect. The salinity of the concerned area was higher than