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Energy Productivity and Efficiency of the ‘gher’ (prawn-fish-rice) Farming System in Bangladesh

Sanzidur Rahman
School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Plymouth, UK

Basanta K. Barmon
Department of Economics, East West University, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Abstract/ Executive Summary:

‘Gher’ farming is a unique system that incorporates the joint operation of three enterprises: freshwater prawn, fish, and HYV rice, and is expanding rapidly in the coastal regions of Bangladesh because of its proven high income earning potential. In this paper, the sustainability of this system is evaluated by analyzing its performance in terms of energy use by applying a stochastic distance function approach which revealed interesting and unexpected results. The prawn enterprise which is the key income-earning component is found to be technically inefficient while the rice enterprise is found to be efficient. The net energy balance and the energy use efficiency of the ‘gher’ farming system are estimated at 18,510 MJ ha-1 and 1.72 respectively. The ‘gher’ farmers are operating at a very high level of technical (energy) efficiency (92%). Diversification amongst enterprises is associated with technical (energy) inefficiency. However, a larger operation size enhances efficiency. The key policy implication is that the ‘gher’ farming system can be sustained in the long run provided that productivity from the rice enterprise remains high. Also, policies to support the expansion of ‘gher’ farm sizes will improve efficiency.

Keywords: Energy productivity, Energy efficiency, ‘Gher’ farming system, Bangladesh

Location: Bangladesh

Start Date:

End Date:

Program Area: Socio-economic and Policy

Non-commodity: Performance

Objectives:

Based on the aforementioned background of the study, the long-term sustainability of this system is evaluated in terms of energy use. More specifically, the present study sets out to estimate: (a) the energy productivity of the ‘gher’ farming system; (b) technical (energy) efficiency of the system; and (c) the determinants of technical (energy) inefficiency.

Methodology:

The ‘gher’ farming system The term ‘gher’ refers to the modification of a rice field to enable the operation of three enterprises: prawn (principal enterprise), fish, and High Yielding Variety (HYV) rice. The middle of the ‘gher’ is surrounded by high and wide dikes with canals dug at the inner periphery of the dikes. The whole area of the ‘gher’ is filled with rain-water during the monsoon season, specifically from June to December, and closely resembles a typical pond. The ‘gher’ becomes dry naturally from January to April except for the canals. A typical ‘gher’ cycle begins in June when farmers release freshwater prawn (M. rosenbergii) postlarvae into the ‘gher’. Farmers use lime during ‘gher’ preparation to reduce soil acidity. During the growing period, farmers provide supplementary feed to the prawns. Traditionally, snail meat was used as prawn feed, but nowadays farmers use a wide range of homemade and commercially available supplementary feeds to increase production. The fish fingerlings are also released into the ‘gher’ during May-June and are cultured for nine months. Usually, no specific supplementary feed is provided for the fish. Fishes share the feed supplied to the prawns. Between January to April, farmers grow HYV Boro rice (dry winter season) on the land inside the ‘gher’, which is irrigated by water from the inside canals using either traditional methods (swing basket) and/or pumps.

Data and the study area This study is based on farm-level cross-sectional data for the crop year 2006 collected from Bilpabla2 located in southern Bangladesh. Bilpabla is one of the typical villages in the Dumuria sub-district of the Khulna District and is located 310 km south of the capital Dhaka.. The village is divided by a small river and the households are located on both sides of the river. The demographic characteristics of the village are very similar to other villages where ‘gher’ farming is practiced. A total of 90 ‘gher’ farmers were randomly selected. The survey was conducted for a period of six months from November 2006 to April 2007. The survey questionnaire was pretested prior to the interviews with the ‘gher’ farmers. 3.2 Analytical framework The analytical framework consists of two approaches: (a) an accounting approach that provides some basic measures of energy productivity, energy use efficiency, and net energy balance seen commonly in the energy literature; and (b) an econometric estimation of the productivity and technical (energy) efficiency of the system.

Source of Information: University of Plymouth PEARLhttps://pearl.plymouth.ac.uk

Article Link (Online Journal): http://hdl.handle.net/10026.1/4005, 10.1016/j.energy.2012.04.027Energy

Funding Source:

Budget:

Total Budget (Tk.) :

Achievement/Findings:

A key policy implication that emerges from the results of this study is that the ‘gher’ farming system is a sustainable system when evaluated in terms of energy use. Although the prawn-fish enterprise, which is the most financially rewarding component of the system, happens to be highly energy inefficient, the HYV rice enterprise offsets this by being a very high energy efficient component. However, the system will suffer if the physical productivity of the HYV rice enterprise falls or its input use levels increase. Therefore, serious attention must be paid to keep HYV rice productivity high. This can be accomplished by using new strains of HYV rice seed released from the research stations (i.e., Bangladesh Rice Research Institute) which are highly productive as well as disease and weather resistant. Also, attention must be paid to alter the feeding pattern of the prawns since the energy used up from the feed ingredients (which are renewable energy sources) constitutes 70% of the total energy used. In addition, measures to enhance ‘gher’ operation size will significantly improve technical (energy) efficiency. Hopefully, the effective implementation of these measures will enable the Bangladeshi freshwater prawn industry to be sustained in the long run and raise the welfare of the farming population as well.

Knowledge Management: Report/Proceedings