Four High value vegetable (summer bottle gourd, yard long bean, khira and spinach) producing farmers were considering population for the study. Five Upazilas (Kamarkhanda, Sadar, Kazipur, Royganj and Ullapara) of Sirajganj district were selected purposively based on the area coverage of the aforesaid high value summer vegetable and in terms of data availability, ease of data collection, accessibility and logistic supports. Thirty farmers from each upazila were selected purposively and 150 (30 ×5) from five Upazilas selected for the study. The data were collected from March to August, 2019 by using a pre-tested interview schedule for the present study. Utmost care and caution was taken during data collection to get correct information to attain accuracy and reliability of data. This study is based on primary sources of data. The relevant secondary data and information are also used from different journals and other related sources.
Percent and ranking method was used to identify the problems related to high value vegetable production. To determine the prospect of high value production in the study area environmental, ecological, employment creation, cooperative marketing, comparative advantage, national and international market etc., factors were brought under consideration. An attempt was made to estimate detailed cost and return, relative profitability of cultivating high value summer vegetable cultivation. The profitability of production was calculated using simple accounting procedures. The cost of production is a cumulative result of fixed and variable costs obtained in crop production. Seed, fertilizer, land preparation, irrigation, weeding, trellis, insecticides/pesticides, harvesting and marketing and interest on operating capital (IOC) costs were deliberate as variable cost. All the costs, except IOC were calculated by taking into actual amount of costs incurred by the farmers. Interest on operating capital was computed by taking all variable expenses incurred for various operations throughout the six months for high value summer vegetable cultivation. Interest rate was assumed to be 10 percent per annum. It was assumed that if the farmer received loan from bank, he/she would have to pay interest at the above rate. Since the vegetable producers usually incur costs for different inputs throughout six months for cultivating high value summer vegetable, to get an average figure of cost associated with invest, the interest rate was divided by 2. On the other hand, family supply labour and rental value of land was considered as fixed cost. To calculate the cost of family labour and rental value of land, the opportunity cost principle was applied. Per hectare profitability of growing high value summer vegetable production from the viewpoints of individual farmers was measured in terms of gross return, gross margin and net return. The undiscounted benefit cost ratio (BCR) is a relative measure which was used to compare benefit per unit of cost. It was used to measure relative profitability of high value summer vegetable production. All the collected data for the study were sorted, scrutinized and analyzed to achieve the objectives of the study. MS excel software was used to analyze the data. Tabular method was used to describe the findings of the study. The following are some equations for calculating total cost, gross return, gross margin, net return and benefit cost ration:
Gross return (GR) Gross return was calculated by multiplying the total volume of output of an enterprise by the average price in the harvesting period (Dillion and Hardaker, 1993). The following equation was used to estimate GR:
Gross return (GR)
Gross return was calculated by multiplying the total volume of output of an enterprise by the average price in the harvesting period (Dillion and Hardaker, 1993). The following equation was used to estimate GR: GM = GR-TVC
Where, GM = Gross margin; GR = Gross return and TVC = Total variable cost
Net return
Net return was calculated by deducting total costs (Variable and Fixed) from gross return. Thus the formula for Net Return: NR=GR-TC (TVC +TFC)
Where, NR= Net Return; GR = Gross Return; TVC = Total Variable Cost; TFC =Total Fixed Cost
Benefit cost ratio (BCR)
The undiscounted benefit cost ratio (BCR) is a relative measure which was used to compare benefit per unit of cost. Benefit cost ratio (BCR) was estimated as a ratio of gross returns and gross costs. The formula for calculating BCR was used: BCR =GR/TC
Where, GR =Gross return; TC = Total cost