Competitiveness, Profitability, Input Demand and Output Supply of Maize Production in Bangladesh

Abstract

Abstract:The study assesses international competitiveness, profitability, output supply and input demand of maize production using a farm survey data of 165 farmers from two major maize growing areas (i.e., Dinajpur and Lalmonirhat districts) of northwestern Bangladesh. Results revealed that maize production is globally competitive and, therefore, can successfully substitute its import. Maize production is also profitable at the farm level (Benefit Cost Ratio = 1.21) with no adverse influence of farm size on yield and profitability. Maize farmers are also responsive to changes in market prices of inputs and outputs. A 1% increase in maize price will increase output supply by 0.4%. The most dominant driver of maize supply and other input demands is land. A 1% increase in available land will increase maize supply by a substantial 3.9%. In addition, landless laborers will benefit through an increase in hired labor demand when land area increases. Policy implications include investments in R&D, tenurial reform to consolidate land holding and smooth functioning of the hired labor market in order to increase maize production and profitability in Bangladesh.

Exploring the Future Potential of Jute in Bangladesh

“…The PAM framework is particularly useful in identifying the appropriate direction of change in policy [13] and is commonly used for policy analysis [14][15][16][17][18]. The process uses two enterprise budgets, one valued at market prices and the other valued at social prices (Table 1).…”

“…Q i = quantity of output; Q j = quantity of tradable input; Q n = quantity of non-tradable input; Revenue at private prices: A = P id × Q i ; Tradable inputs at private prices: B = P jd × Q j ; Domestic factors at private prices: C = P nd × Q n ; Revenue at social prices: E = P ib × Q i ; Tradable inputs at social prices: F = P jb × Q j ; Domestic factors at social prices: G = P ns × Q n ; [14].…”

“…The second row of the matrix calculates the measure of social profitability (H) defined as the difference between social revenue (E) and costs (F + G). Social profitability measures economic efficiency/comparative advantage of the system [14].…”

“…For the non-tradable intermediate inputs, such as agricultural labor, machinery, seed, organic manure, insecticides, cultivated land, irrigation fees, and interest on operating capital, we have applied domestic costs adjusted with specific conversion factors (SCF) for each input (for details of full social costs and SCF, see Kazal et al [2]; Shahabuddin and Dorosh, [21]). The opportunity cost of operating capital was calculated at an interest rate of 10% for the duration of the jute production period [14].…”

The economic benefit of agarwood production through aeration method into the Aquilaria malaccensis tree in Bangladesh

“…Benefit-cost ratio (BCR) is the ratio of gross return divided by gross cost. In this experiment, BCR was 40964.4/4399.88 = 9.31 per tree where BCR from cash crop like High Yielding Variety (HYV) Boro, HYV Aman, Wheat, HYV Maize, Jute, Lentil and fruit like banana are 1.14-1.28, 1.10-1.23, 1.12-1.27, 1.21-2.85, 1.17-1.24, 1.18-1.21 and 3.69, respectively (Rahman et al, 2013;Kamal et al, 2015;Rahman et al, 2016). Though agar tree takes 10/11 years for giving yield which is 10/11 folds of any cereal crop, total profit included intercropping in agarwood cultivation will be higher than any other crops.…”