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Impact of Improved Rice Varieties Adoption on Farmers’ Well-being (livelihood) in Rural Bangladesh

Mohammad Ariful Islam
Senior Scientific Officer, Agricultural Economics Division, Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI), Gazipur-1701

Abstract/ Executive Summary:

This study assesses the impact of improved wet (aman) season rice varieties on farmers’ wellbeing in rural Bangladesh. The study applied difference-in-difference with propensity-score matching (DID-PSM) method using unbalanced panel data to achieve the set objectives. Bangladesh Integrated Household Survey (BIHS) data collected by IFPRI in Bangladesh were used for this study. It was found that, wet (aman) season rice technology has a robust and positive effect on farmers’ welfare in rural Bangladesh, as measured by the increases in household income, wet (aman) season rice income, wet season rice yield and household consumption expenditure which decreases poverty gap and squared poverty gap significantly over time. Small farmers gained significantly more benefit compared to the marginal and near landless farmers from the adoption of improved rice varieties. It was also observed that the wet season new rice technology has positive effects on improved rice yield not only for the small farmers, for the marginal and near landless farmers as well. These findings imply that, dissemination of new rice technology although cannot contribute in the improvement of marginal and near landless rice farmers’ welfare in wet season, contribute immensely in raising food availability. Furthermore, the government, policy makers, and rice breeders should emphasize not only on the development of stress tolerant rice varieties for addressing the climate change situation but also to take into consideration of stress prone areas under rice cultivation. Moreover, the government, and policy makers should further emphasize on the creation of employment opportunity for the surplus agricultural workers in non-agricultural sector for improving the welfare of the poorest group of farmers. Therefore, the current rice policy (rice self-sufficiency) appears to be supportive to help Bangladeshi rice sector for achieving food security in Bangladesh.

Keywords: Adoption, Farmers’ well-being, Improved rice varieties, Poverty, Self-selection bias.

Location: Two nationwide survey

Start Date: 00-00-2011

End Date: 00-00-2015

Program Area: Variety and Species

Commodity: Rice

Objectives:

This study aims to investigate the heterogeneous impacts of improved rice technology adoption during the rainy season on the welfare of the marginal and near to landless farmers and small farmers as well as to assess the current rice sector development policies like., ‘rice self-sufficiency’ policy in Bangladesh

Methodology:

In this study, two period panel data were obtained from the Bangladesh Integrated Household Survey (BIHS). The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) conducted two nationwide survey covering 6,500 nationally representative sample rural households in different divisions of Bangladesh during 2011/12 and 2015. From a total of 6,500 rural households, there are 1,542 wet (aman) season rice growing rural households and from a total of 5,447 rural households, there are 1,522 wet (aman) season rice growing households in two different periods. The study did not consider 107 households from 1,542 and 87 households from 1,522 those have adopted both modern and traditional rice varieties. Finally, 1435 rural households (same for both periods) were selected on the basis of adoption and non-adoption of improved rice technology. This study used unbalanced panel (approximately 83% of same land have been cultivated to follow-up period from the base period data) data for DID-PSM model by using wet (aman) season rice farming households of Bangladesh. Data modification and filtering were performed to ensure that the unit of measurement of each variable was consistent with the study objectives, and the quality of data were satisfactory. Although rice production in Bangladesh is carried out in three distinct seasons (namely, aus/pre-monsoon season, aman/wet season, and boro/dry season), however, this study used data of rice growing households only in the wet season, to achieve the set objectives.

Source of Information: Bangladesh J. Agric. Econs. XXXVIII, 1&2 (2016-2017) 35-54

Article Link (Online Journal):

Funding Source:

Budget:

Total Budget (Tk.) :

Achievement/Findings:

Findings of the study revealed that wet (aman) season rice technology has a robust and positive effect on small farmers’ welfare in rural Bangladesh as measured by the level of increases in household income, increases in household consumption expenditure, increases in wet (aman) season rice income, and also increases in wet season rice yield, and decreases both in poverty gap and squared poverty gap significantly over time. On the other hand, the marginal and near landless farmers have not gained significantly through adopting modern rice technology over non-adopter in terms of all the indicators except rice yield. However, yield of improved rice technology is positive and significant for the marginal and near landless farmers. Therefore, modern rice technology adoption seems to be conducive in increasing the level of yield of marginal and near-landless farms but it hardly helps them to overcome the poverty line, unless other equity-enhancing policy measures are undertaken. Overall, there seems to be a large scope for the enhanced adoption of agricultural technology in order to reduce the level of poverty in rural areas. What is crucial for poverty alleviation objectives, though, is not just the nature of technology but also the (direct) inclusion of a poverty dimension into the agricultural research priority-setting. It is necessary to develop rice technology targeting to increase the level of income and as well as reduce the poverty of the resource poor marginal and near landless farmers. Furthermore, the government, policy makers, and rice breeders should emphasize not only on the development of stress tolerant rice varieties for addressing the climate change situation but also to take into consideration of stress prone areas under rice cultivation. Moreover, the government, and policy makers should further emphasize on the creation of employment opportunity for the surplus agricultural workers in non-agricultural sector for improving the welfare of the poorest group of farmers. Therefore, the current rice policy (rice self-sufficiency) appears to be supportive to help Bangladeshi rice sector for achieving food security in Bangladesh.

Knowledge Management: Journal