Study areas
The study was under taken thirty five districts in Bangladesh viz.,Dinajpur, Rangpur, Kurigram, Bogra, Joypurhat, Gaibandha, Rajshahi, Pabna, Khulna, Kushtia, Jessore, Meherpur, Chuadanga, Satkhira, Barisal, Patuakhali, Bhola, Gopalganj, Faridpur, Rajbari, Madaripur, Gazipur, Sherpur, Kishoreganj, Mymensingh, Tangail, Manikgonj, Narshingdi, Munshiganj, Chittaganj, Comilla, Feni, Bandarban, Cox' Bazer and Sylhet where Bt eggplant varieties were planted in farmers’ fields.
Sample size
The sample farmers were both Bt and non-Bt eggplant together constituted 855 farmers. Bt farmers refers to those farmers who cultivated eggplant during Rabi 2016-17 season by using seedlings of Bt eggplant distributed by BARI. Non-Bt farmers are the traditional eggplant producers and they were selected fromthe same locations cultivating same varietiesfor comparative analysis.Data were collected from 505Bt eggplant growers and 350 non-Bt eggplant growers. The survey covered 105 villages from the selected districts. Face to face interview technique was followed to collect the primary data from the selected farmers. A pre-designed and pre-tested interview schedule was used for this purpose.
Analytical techniques
The farm-level survey data collected were checked, summarized, and analyzed. Descriptive statistics were provided with comparison of means, and budgets were calculated to assess economic benefits.
Measurement of financial costs and returns
In this study, costs and returns analyses will be done on both variable and total cost basis. The following equation (Π) will be used to assess the financial profitability of eggplant cultivation.
Per hectare profitability of growing eggplant from the view points of individual farmers was measured in terms of gross return, gross margin and net return.
Gross return: Gross return was calculated by simply multiplying the total volume of output with it’s per unit of price in the harvesting period.
Gross margin: Gross margin calculation was done to have an estimate of the difference between total return and variable costs. The argument for using the gross margin analysis is that the farmers of Bangladesh are more interested to know their return over variable costs.
Net return: The analysis considered fixed cost (which included lend rent and family supplied labour). Net margin was calculated by deducting all costs (Variable and Fixed) from gross return.