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Rice Crop Residue Management and Its Impact on Farmers Livelihood - an Empirical Study

MT Uddin
Department of Agricultural Economics, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh-2202, Bangladesh

K Fatema
Department of Agricultural Economics, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh-2202, Bangladesh

Abstract/ Executive Summary:

The study aimed to examine the present status of rice crop residue management and its impact on farmers’ livelihood covering two sub-districts in Mymensingh district of Bangladesh. A total of 100 farmers (50 for crop residue practicing farmers and 50 for the farmers involved in traditional farming) were selected randomly for data collection. A combination of descriptive, statistical and mathematical techniques were applied to achieve the objectives and to get the meaningful results. The results of descriptive statistics showed that retention was found higher in far distance plots from homestead. No retention of crop residues was found in case of Aus and Aman rice. The whole retention was found only in case of Boro rice. The shortage of labour in season and the wage rate were also important factors for the retention of crop residues. However, farmers’ perceptions about the use of crop residues were mostly adding organic matter to the crop field followed by mulching and feeding animal. The recycling of resources among crop retention and livestock has the great potential to return a considerable amount of plant nutrients to the soil in the rice based crop production systems. Due to crop residue practices, crop and livestock both were benefited through resource interdependences. The sampled farmers were benefited from retention of crop residues by improving soil quality, soil moisture, etc.; and farmers used less amounts of fertilizer, irrigation water, etc. for the succeeding crops. Consequently, succeeding crop productivity, profitability and annual income were increased significantly. The result of logit regression model shows that age of household head, farm size, agricultural income and non-farm income were found as significant variables in explaining the variation in crop residue adoption of farm households. To assess the livelihood pattern of sample farm households through asset pentagon approach, noteworthy improvement was found s on different capitals. The study identified some problems regarding crop residue management and finally, recommended that if the farmers get proper training for such management, it would be helpful to improve their livelihood

Keywords: Crop residue, Asset pentagon approach, Farmers livelihood, Rice

Location: Mymensingh District

Start Date:

End Date:

Program Area: Postharvest and Agro-processing

Non-commodity: Income generation

Objectives:

(i) To evaluate farmers’ perceptions for the use of rice crop residue with resource recycling between crop and livestock components; (ii) To assess the impact of crop residue practice on the succeeding crop productivity and profitability; (iii) To assess the impacts of rice crop residues on farmers’ income generation and livelihood pattern; and (iv) To determine the factors responsible for the adoption of rice crop residue practices by the farmers.

Methodology:

The study was conducted at different villages of two sub-districts (i.e., Mymensingh Sadar and Gouripur) of Mymensingh District where farmers have been following crop residue practices. Focus group discussions (FGD), Field surveys and key informant interviews (KII) were followed to collect primary data and information for one year (i.e., 2013) farming operations. A total of 100 (50 from each sub-district) farmers was interviewed for this study. Data were collected from respondents using structured questionnaire. Secondary data and information from different reports, publications, notifications, etc. relevant to this study were also collected and analyzed for this research. Two sets of questionnaire were developed, one for farmers who are following crop residue practice and the other one for the farm households involved in traditional practices. A combination of descriptive, statistical and mathematical techniques was applied to achieve the objectives and to get the meaningful result. Descriptive statistics (i.e., sum, average, percentages, ratios, standard errors, etc.) in support of flowcharts and figures were used. Productivity measurement- Productivity was measured as the ratio of farm’s total outputs to its inputs (Huq et al., 1990). Here, both physical amount and monetary value have been used to measure productivity of different enterprises. Profitability analysis- It is important to consider the economic value of the crop in analyzing the profitability of crop. Per hector profitability of crop production from the view point of individual farmers was measured in terms of gross return, gross margin, net return and benefit cost ratio (undiscounted). As a thumb rule, an enterprise with higher or positive gross margin is deemed viable. Hence, gross margin analysis was used to assess the profitability of crop production. According to Barnard and Nix (1999), gross margin (GM) of farming enterprise is its output less the variable costs attributed to it. However, this study employs the definition preferred by Visagic and Ghebretsadik (2005) that sees gross margin as the difference between the gross incomes derived from each enterprise minus the total variable costs (TVC). In crop production, the variable cost consists primarily of expenses on seed, family labour, hired labour, fertilizer, manure etc. These are aggregated to obtain the total variable costs. The enterprise output is the total value of the production of the enterprise. Determinants for the adoption of rice crop residue practice- Linear regression analysis is based on the assumption that the dependent variable is continuous. A very interesting and applicable method analyzing the dichotomous response variable is the linear logistic regression method. This method can be used not only to identify the factors but also to predict the probability of success. The general logistic model expresses a qualitative dependent variable as a function of several independent variables, both qualitative and quantitative. The logit model was estimated to identify the determinants for the adoption of crop residue practice. The implicit form of the model was as follows: Z_i = β₀ + β₁X₁ + β₂X₂ + β₃X₃ + β₄X₄ + β₅X₅ + β₆X₆ + U_i;Where, Z_i = The adoption of crop residue of i^th farmer; X ₌ Vector of explanatory variables; β₀= Constant; β₁, β₂, β₃……….β₆ = Coefficients to be estimated; and U_i ₌ Error term. The dependent variable is an indicator variable for the adoption of crop residue practices taking values either 0 or 1. The independent variables are captured as: X₁ = Household size (number); X₂ = Educational level of household head (years); X₃ = Age of household head (years); X₄ = Agricultural income (Tk.); X₅ = Farm size (ha); and X₆ = Non-farm income (Tk.). To address the livelihood patterns of the respondents, the sustainable livelihood framework analysis including the asset pentagon (which is composed of five types of capitals namely, human capital, social capital, natural capital, physical capital and financial capital) were followed (DFID, 2000).

Source of Information: Progressive Agriculture 27 (2): 189-199, 2016

Article Link (Online Journal):

Funding Source:

Budget:

Total Budget (Tk.) :

Achievement/Findings:

The study reveals that crop residue retention was found for Boro rice production; and whole retention method was practiced in case of far distance plots from the homestead. Major utilization options of crop residue were identified which are: animal feed, cooking fuel, incorporation with tillage for organic fertilizer and mulching. However, farmers’ perceptions about the use of crop residues were mostly adding organic matter to the crop field followed by mulching and feeding animal. The recycling of resources among crop retention and livestock has the great potential to return a considerable amount of plant nutrients to the soil in the rice based crop production systems. Due to crop residue practices, crop and livestock both were benefited through resource interdependences. The sampled farmers were benefited from retention of rice crop residues by improving soil quality, soil moisture, etc.; and farmers used fewer amounts of fertilizer, irrigation water, etc. for the succeeding crops. Consequently, succeeding crop productivity, profitability and annual income were increased significantly. The result of logit regression model shows that age of household head, farm size, agricultural income, and non-farm income were found as significant variables in explaining the variation in crop residue adoption of farm households. Noteworthy improvement was found based on different capitals of sampled farmers through asset pentagon approach. The study identified some problems which are: distance and ownership of plots, lack of scientific knowledge and method of crop residue management, and flood and other natural calamities. Finally, the study pointed out the recommendations as (i) farmers should be encouraged to utilize their rice crop residues which will facilitate their farming operations profitable; (ii) farmers should be informed about the various benefits of utilization of crop residues by extension agents or other government and non-government organizations to encourage for utilizing their rice crop residues efficiently which will improve soil fertility; (iii) farmers should be encouraged to attend training on the proper utilization of rice crop residues; and (iv) proper technique and technology should be provided to the farmers at reasonable cost so that those could be used to minimize the gap of yield of different crops in order to improve their livelihood.

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