Assessing Profitability of Farming of Disadvantaged Smallholders inside and outside Polder 29 in Khulna District of Bangladesh

Abstract

The present study is designed to compare profitability of growing crops by the selected disadvantaged smallholders living inside and outside the Polder No. 29 in Khulna district of Bangladesh. Primary data were collected from 120 respondents, of which 65 from inside the Polder 29 and 55 from outside the Polder 29 were selected randomly. The disadvantaged people outside Polder 29 (Latabunia) followed only one cropping pattern a year such as: (i) T. Aman paddy and Bagda. On the other hand, the disadvantaged people inside polder area followed two distinct cropping patterns a year such as: (i) T. Aman paddy and Bagda; and (ii) Boro paddy and T. Aman paddy. No disadvantaged people outside Polder 29 were found to be involved in small trading and livestock keeping whereas it was common inside Polder 29. So, a wider variation in cropping patterns and profitability of the disadvantaged people was observed as the farm is located inside and outside the Polder 29 (Latabunia). Profitability of disadvantaged people for Bagda cultivation within and outside Polder 29 was not much differs but profitability of disadvantaged people for T. Original Research ArticleZaman and Mannaf; AJEBA, 1(1): 1-9, 2016; Article no.AJEBA.28456 2 Aman production inside Polder 29 was higher than the profitability for T. Aman production of Latabunia farmers and the difference was Tk 19142.00 per hectare. The concerned scientists should give top most priority to develop salt tolerance new variety of T. Aman paddy and MV Boro paddy for this area. Necessary steps could be taken to protect the land of outside farmers from the salinity or other appropriate steps could be taken to decrease salinity problem of the area.

Impact of cropping system diversification on productivity and resource use efficiencies of smallholder farmers in south-central Bangladesh: a multi-criteria analysis

“…Water stagnation and land subsidence are key issues (Krupnik et al 2015(Krupnik et al , 2017, reducing farmers' options for diversifying their systems. Previous studies in the adjacent south-western coastal zone have observed a positive impact of polders on yield, economic performance, and cropping intensity (Chowdhury et al 2010;Zaman and Mannaf, 2016), supporting our decision to separately analyze households within and outside of polders.…”

Effect of soil and water salinity on dry season boro rice production in the south-central coastal area of Bangladesh

“…Moderate and low salinity levels can be managed effectively, but it is challenging to manage high salinity levels [ 50 ]. In many south-central coastal areas, polders are constructed as barriers against direct inundation by tidal saline water [ 51 ]. However, during dry periods, areas outside the polders are frequently affected by tidal saline water [ 6 ].…”

Factors contributing to farm-level productivity and household income generation in coastal Bangladesh’s rice-based farming systems

“…Polders are a system of embankments consisting of dykes and sluice gates to provide protection against cyclones, storm surges, fluvio-tidal flooding, oceanic flooding, and saline or brackish water intrusion [39,40]. Crop failures due to monsoon flooding or saline inundation were common in lower estuarine areas before polder construction started in the 1960s [41,42]. About 1.3 million ha of land have been protected by constructing more than 123 polders in low elevation coastal zones, containing 5000 km of embankments with 2500 sluice gates or water control structures [43].…”

“…The upper estuarine areas (e.g., Barishal district) are outside of polders, meaning they remain vulnerable to tidal flooding during the monsoon season [44]. Research focusing on the saline-prone south-western region of Bangladesh in the Khulna Division has shown that crop productivity, economic performance, and cropping intensity can be improved within polder compared to adjacent outside polder households [42,45,46]. However, in regions such as south-central Bangladesh with a reduced risk of salinization and more opportunity for increasing cropping intensity, differences in food production and economic outcomes between polder and non-polder households have been less thoroughly studied.…”