BRAC borrowers received 100 percent credit of their applied amount. Maximum of the credit money was utilized purposively and rickshaw pulling borrowers showed the highest purposive utilization. All the borrowers satisfactorily repaid their loan within the specified term. The important factors for timely loan repayment were found to be self awareness, installment mode of payment and group pressure. Borrower's income proved to be the most significant factor contributing repayment process. Grocery shop borrowers experienced the highest increase in income and expenditure while rickshaw pulling borrowers experienced the same in saving. Though BRAC credit brought positive change to its borrowers, the impact was not satisfactory. So, other related programs with credit support were suggested to bring desired change for the borrowers.

Credit provides the means for many farmers to adjust their operations to keep up with the constant changes and, by doing so, to improve their operations. It also contributes to achieve food security of households. Tabular method is used to analyze credit profile, multiple regression analyses are used to determine the impact of credit on maize production and "Modified" OECD scale is used to measure calorie intake level of the 60 maize farming households who has got agricultural credit from Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank in Lalmonirhat district of Bangladesh. Data were collected through field survey by using pre-designed and pre-tested interview schedule. TK.10500, 26333.33, 92103.77 (US$ 125, 313.49, 1096.47) for small, medium and large categories, respectively, which was 100% of the total applied amount. The total principal received by the household was about TK. 50, 02,500 (US$ 59553.57) and at 9% interest it became TK. 54, 52,725 (US$ 64913.39). The repayment performance of the households was about 100%. It is also revealed from the study that credit had a positive impact on fertilizer demand and irrigation demand and overall a positive impact on maize production. The coefficient of maize production with respect to agricultural credit was 0.081. The elasticity of fertilizer and irrigation demand with respect to credit was 0.016 and 0.543 respectively. The calorie intake situation of the sample households depicts that about 6.67% of the respondents belonged to the ultra-poor whose per day calorie intake was 1481.991 k.cal. About 20% of respondents were hardcore poor whose per day calorie intake was 1722.133 k.cal. The persons belonged to the absolute poor about 21.67% and per capita calorie intake was 1934.605 k.cal. The rest 51.67% belonged to the non-poor group. Different financial institutions should disburse sufficient agricultural credit to fulfill the requirement of the farmers.

The present study was an attempt to analyze the farmers’ perception about causes and remedies of Monga in some  selected areas of Lalmonirhat district of Bangladesh. In order to achieve the objectives, survey was conducted in three villages and one Char area in Hatibandha upazila of Lalmonirhat district. In total 90 samples were purposively taken of which 45 were from Char area, 25 from rural area, and 20 from urban area. The family size of the respondents revealed that medium family domination in Char area (the poorest area) is an indication of the consciousness of the poor people about population problem. Monga stricken people in terms of less consumption were higher in Char and rural areas compared to urban area. Lack of cultivable land, natural calamities, nonavailability of working facilities at non-agricultural sector, lack of working facilities at agricultural sector due to natural calamities and lack of credit availability and high interest rate were opined by the researcher as their causes of Monga. On the other hand, beef fattening, petty business, plant nursery and poultry farming were addressed as the mitigating activities of Monga undertaken by NGOs. old-age allowance, Hundred-days job scheme and Vulnerable Group Development (VGD) programme were observed as Monga mitigating activities undertaken by GOs in the study area. The difference between the performance of GO and NGO in Monga mitigation was wider in Char area than that of in rural and urban areas. The higher performance of NGOs was due to their better identification, selection and supervision strategy with perfect information. Drawbacks like, corruption, lack of proper management, lack of adequate financial support, etc., might be responsible for the poor performance of GO mitigating activities of Monga in the study area. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/jbau.v10i1.12101 J. Bangladesh Agril. Univ. 10(1): 107–118, 2012

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Six carp and carp based culture technologies were selected to examine the sustainability of supplementary feed-based aquaculture through availability of domestic feeds compared to the total requirement in Bangladesh. The study covered seven districts of Bangladesh with a sample size of 376. It was found that farmers used a good number of feeds (more than 35) for the selected technologies but they maintained no standard doses for them. There were important differences among the prices of different feeds and other inputs used for different technologies in different parts of the country. Prices of all inputs were found to be increasing and this increase has been greater in recent years as compared to previous years. Though all the technologies were found to be profitable, the feed situation was not satisfactory. Except for rice polish, the supplies of other local feeds were unable to meet the national demand. If this situation persists and no measures are taken to secure the local feed supply, the present development of supplementary feed-based aquaculture will become dependent on imported feeds and would not be sustainable in the future. This study strongly suggests that the authorities should handle the matter with proper attention, considering its significant impact in the economy of the country.