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A Delphi Study to Determine Sustainability Factors: the Case of Rice Farming in Bangladesh

RANJAN ROY*
School of Humanities, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Penang.

NGAI WENG CHAN
School of Humanities, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Penang.

QUAZI NASIM AHMED
School of Biological Science, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Penang.

Abstract/ Executive Summary:

Sustainable farming is a growing concern of agricultural policy agenda. The concept of ‘farming sustainability’ has a broad appeal but little specificity. Therefore, to bring in a wide spectrum of knowledge, experiences, and mental models, a multidisciplinary and multi-stakeholders collaborative research approach was adopted to determine important factors promoting rice farming sustainability. To cope with this challenge of stakeholders’ participation, a modified Delphi technique was employed to capture the views of stakeholders. Based on a review of published and grey literature as well as informal discussion with experts, an ‘initial list’ of factors was prepared, and a panel of academic experts, researchers, extension workers, policy makers, NGO workers, agro-business leaders, and farmers provided input in the form of close and open questions. After administering two rounds survey, a fair consensus of experts score was achieved, and accordingly, a set of 21 factors: economical (3), social (9), ecological (7), and political (2) was determined. Based on the findings from this study these factors can be contributed substantially to promote and manage rice farming sustainability at the local level. The results highlighted that stakeholders’ participation is an empirical way of generating straightforward inputs for coherent strategy formulation that are imperative for achieving sustainability.

Keywords: Sustainable farming, Delphi technique, Natural resource, Development, Bangladesh

Location:

Start Date:

End Date:

Program Area: Socio-economic and Policy

Non-commodity: Performance

Objectives:

The purpose of this study was to determine the factors to promoting and managing rice farming sustainability.

Methodology:

Multi-stakeholders’ participation approach was adopted in this study. The selected stakeholders were from varied professions and geographic locations; therefore, it was difficult to gather all contributors in one place at the same time to discuss and achieve a consensus on the factor of sustainability. Thus, considering geographical, financial and temporal obstacles, this study employed the Delphi method for exploring potential factors of sustainable rice farming. Studies stated that it was a good research method for (i) deriving consensus among experts from the wider geographical areas on a particular topic (Imang & Ngah, 2012) and (ii) achieving an overall consensus on a complex problem from experts where knowledge is limited (Hauck et, al., 2007). The Delphi methods have been used in a plethora of cases and its application to determining factors in diverse fields is also established (Rasouli et al., 2009; Chatterjee, 2012). In this view, it is a method for consensus building by using a series of questionnaires delivered to experts, conducting repeated rounds, opportunities for expert to reconsider their responses, anonymity of experts, and using a range of statistical calculations for discussion and drawing conclusion.

Source of Information: Journal of Sustainability Science and Management, Volume 9 Number 1, June 2014: 56-68 ISSN: 1823-8556

Article Link (Online Journal): http://jssm.umt.edu.my/wp-content/uploads/sites/51/2015/02/5w.pdf

Funding Source:

Budget:

Total Budget (Tk.) :

Achievement/Findings:

The study deals with one of the significant issues associated with ‘increasing the productivity of rice farming, while at the same time keeping farming system profitable, maintaining farmers’ quality of life and protecting the natural resource base over time’, collectively these issues defined the sustainability of rice farming. Although a significant progress has achieved in production at the expanse of natural resources, high yielding varieties, and fossil fuels in the last few decades, there is no room to assume that these relationships will be remained linear in the present context. Scientists, policy makers have widely come to accept; specifically, natural resources are needed to be protected from destructed farming practices to keep the lands productive as well as to preserve the ability of land for future generations to meet their needs. Multi-stakeholder participation properly determines a list of 21 factors of four dimensions of sustainability that apparently essential for attaining and managing sustainable rice farming. However, it remains for policy makers to determine how these issues will be addressed. The results of this study provide an important insight into effective actions for attaining production in a sustainable way and applicable to other rice producing countries. The findings of this study are useful for formulating coherent rice farming development strategies, which are imperative for achieving sustainable agriculture and socio-economic development in Asia and the Pacific.

Knowledge Management: Journal