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Constraints to Diversification in Bangladesh: a Survey of Farmers' Views

Jeffrey Metzel
Senior Economist , Associates for International Resources and Development.

Benson Ateng
World Bank.

Abstract/ Executive Summary:

The study draws upon data collected in 1994 from 200 farm household in 10 thanas, purposively selected to represent major geographic and agro-ecological zones in the Bangladesh. The paper attempts to identify problems associated with diversified crops, based on farmers' perceptions. More importantly, farm characteristics are examined to explain levels of crop diversity or specialization; and results from regression analysis are presented. In the latter exercise, Simpson Index of diversity as well as Rice-share Index have been used. The survey results suggest several constraints to crop diversity, such as, low profitability, high input cost, risk in selling non-rice crops, susceptibility to weather variation and pests. The Simpson Index of diversity is found to decline with farm size, implying that large farmers specialize in few crops, particularly rice and few cash crops. Among other things, proximity to towns increase crop diversity while credit is found to reduce it. The study was however unable to identify any relationship between efforts by NGOs and the degree of crop diversity on farms.

Keywords: Constraints,Diversification,Farmers' views

Location:

Start Date:

End Date:

Program Area: Socio-economic and Policy

Non-commodity: Price behavior

Objectives:

To identify factors which encourage farmers to diversify the crops that they produce, and to obtain farmer perceptions of problems related to the production and marketing of "diversified" crops.

Methodology:

The concept of crop diversity is illusory because it incorporates two distinct ideas. First, crop diversity is assumed to increase with the number of different crops. In the case of Bangladesh, farms may be expected to have large number of different crops, particularly in the homestead gardens. However, a second concept relates to the relative importance of each crop in production. A more diversified farm is one which does not depend too heavily on any single crop. Given concerns for both diversity and specialization, the analysis evaluates two different measures of "diversification". The first measure, which evaluates the number of crops produced and the evenness of production shares across crops, is entitled the Simpson Index (S). This index, which was developed initially for use in measuring biological diversity, includes both characteristics of crop diversity.The Simpson Index varies between zero and one, with more diverse farms approaching one. Thus, for example, a farmer who produces only one crop would have an index value of zero, while the Simpson Index of a farmer with an infinite number of crops, each covering the same area, would have an index value of one, and a farmer with two crops of equal area would have an index value of 0.5. More interesting is the ranking of farmers with multiple crops under different relative area allocations: while a farmer with five evenly represented crops would reach 0.8, a farmer with five crops, but one covering 75 per cent of his land and the rest equally distributed would only have an index value of 0.42.The second measure of diversity used in the analysis is the proportion of rice in the total cropped area. This index, hereafter called the Rice-share Index (R).

Source of Information: The Bangladesh Development Studies,Vol. 21, No. 3, Crop Diversification in Bangladesh (September 1993), pp. 39-71 Published by: Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies.

Article Link (Online Journal):

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Achievement/Findings:

The survey results suggested that farmers already produce many non-rice crops both for consumption and sale, and are aware of many other opportunities. By this measure, farms were already substantially diversified. On the other hand, most non-rice crops are produced in very small amounts, and so the objective of "sale" of these crops reflects a strategy for any surplus production rather than crop production as a commercial venture. The number of crops which farmers produce increase with farm size, but so does the share of land that farmers maintain under rice. Moreover, the Simpson Index of diversity declines with farm size because the distribution of land among crops becomes more skewed as farm size increases. This pattern implies that larger farmers specialize in only a few crops, particularly rice and cash crops, presumably for commercialization, while the remaining crops are retained only for on-farm consumption.

Knowledge Management: Journal