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Exploring Economic Efficiency of Pineapple Production at Madhupur Upazila of Tangail District, Bangladesh

K. Akter*
Department of Agricultural Statistics, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh-2202, Bangladesh

S. Majumder
Department of Agricultural Statistics, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh-2202, Bangladesh

M. A. Islam
Department of Agricultural Statistics, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh-2202, Bangladesh

A. U. Noman
Department of Agricultural Statistics, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh-2202, Bangladesh

Abstract/ Executive Summary:

The study was conducted to estimate the economic efficiency of pineapple production at Madhupur upazila of Tangail district in Bangladesh. Considering the 2016-2017 cropping season, data were collected through structured questionnaire administered on 100 pineapple farmers using multistage sampling technique and analyzed using descriptive statistics and translog stochastic cost frontier approach. The mean economic efficiency was estimated as 82.61% across the study area which means that farmers were not operating on the cost frontier (100% efficient). So, the results indicate that there is still an opportunity for pineapple farmers to minimize cost without compromising yield with present technologies available in the hands of farmers. The study reveals that age and micro credit had significant positive but extension contact had significant negative influence on economic inefficiency. The significant positive coefficient of age and access to credit indicate that economic inefficiencies are significantly lower for the younger farmers compared to old aged group and farmers with access to credit tend to exhibit lower levels of efficiency. The negative influence of extension contact implies that economic inefficiency will be reduced significantly by enhancing extension contact. It can be concluded that there was economic inefficiency in pineapple production in the study area despite high levels of economic efficiencies among the studied farmers. It is recommended that policies should be implemented for providing a favourable environment to encourage more youth to engage in pineapple production in a bid to increase efficiency. Concerned authority should need to monitor beneficiaries of credits to reduce the misapplication of credit money by the farmers. Extension agents have to improve the frequency of contact with the farmers for appropriate input allocation and cost minimization to enhance efficiency in pineapple production.

Keywords: Pineapple; Economic efficiency; Translog stochastic cost frontier model; Madhupur upazila.

Location: Madhupur upazila of Tangail district in Bangladesh.

Start Date:

End Date:

Program Area: Socio-economic and Policy

Commodity: Pineapple

Objectives:

In this context, an attempt is made to estimate the economic efficiencies of pineapple producing farmers in Madhupur upazila of Tangail district and identify the significant factors influencing the level of inefficiency in pineapple production. Determining the existing level of economic efficiency and the factors which are responsible for inefficiency will help farmers to allocate their resources more wisely and also to assist the government in designing and searching for new policy tools to reach sector specific goals.

Methodology:

3.1 The Study Area: Tangail is a district in the central region of Bangladesh. The district is sub-divided into 12 upazilas. Madhupur is one of them. The upazila was formed as thana in 1898 and turned into an upazila in 1983. The land area is 332.13 sq. km., located in between 24°47´ and 24°31´ north latitudes and in between 90°10´ and 89°57´ east longitudes. It is bounded by Muktagachha and Jamalpur Sadar upazilas on the north, Gopalpur and Ghatail upazilas on the south, Fulbaria and Muktagachha upazilas on the east, Dhanbari and Gopalpur upazilas on the west. It has 1 municipality, 6 unions, 131 mouzas, and 171 villages. Total population is 234299 where; male 109387, female 104911. Average literacy is 25.3% with male 30.2%, female 20.1%. Main sources of income include; agriculture 63%, nonagricultural labourer 2.14%, industry 0.53%, commerce 13.05%, transport and communication 1.21%, service 8.90%, construction 2.40%, religious service 0.22%, rent and remittance 0.70% and others 7.85%. Main crops are paddy, wheat, jute, sugarcane, potato, cotton, ginger, turmeric, cassava and vegetables. Main fruits Mango, jackfruit, pineapple, papaya, litchi and olive. Main agricultural exports include; pineapple, jackfruit, silk, cassava, cotton and honey [15]. 3.2 Sampling Procedure and Sample Size The primary data were collected in a field survey by direct interview with pineapple farmers in the study area for the 2016-2017 cropping season. A multi-stage sampling technique was used as a sampling plan for collecting the data from Madhupur upazila of Tangail district. In the first stage, simple random sampling technique was used in selecting two unions out of the six unions. In the second stage, five villages were selected randomly from each union. This was based on the list of major pineapple producing villages obtained from the upazila agriculture office. Finally, the third stage involved random selection of 10 pineapple producers from each village who were at the initial stage of cultivation (i.e., harvested first yield from their pineapple fields), giving a total sample size of 100 farmers. A list of 993 pineapple farmers obtained from upazila agricultural office out of which 100 farmers was selected, representing 10% (99.3, this was rounded to 100) of the population.

Source of Information: Asian Journal of Agricultural Extension, Economics & Sociology 27(4): 1-11, 2018; Article no.AJAEES.44213 ISSN: 2320-7027

Article Link (Online Journal): DOI: 10.9734/AJAEES/2018/44213

Funding Source:

Budget:

Total Budget (Tk.) :

Achievement/Findings:

The study leads to the conclusion that economic inefficiency was present in pineapple production in the study area. The mean economic efficiency was estimated as 82.61% across the study area which means that farmers were operating their farms below the cost frontier (100% efficient). So, the results indicate that there is still scope for 17.39% improvement in economic efficiency in pineapple production by minimizing cost and without compromising yield with present technologies available in the hands of farmers. Results from the study indicated that age and micro credit had significant positive influence on economic inefficiency. On the other hand, extension contact had significant negative influence on economic inefficiency. The significant positive coefficient of age indicated that economic efficiencies were significantly higher for the younger farmers in the production of pineapple compared to old age group. Farmers with access to credit tend to exhibit lower levels of efficiency because of significant positive coefficient of access to credit. The negative influence of extension contact implies that economic inefficiency will be reduced significantly by increasing the frequency of extension contact. Despite of high levels of economic efficiencies among the studied farmers, economic inefficiencies prevailed among pineapple producing farms in the study area. Government should provide favourable environment to encourage more youth to engage in pineapple production in a bid to increase efficiency. In order to reduce the misapplication of credit money by the farmers, effective monitoring authority should need to monitor beneficiaries of credits. Extension agents should improve the frequency of contacts with the farmers for bringing a positive effect of their services on the farmer’s efficiency.

Knowledge Management: Journal