Patterns of Agricultural Production and Practices, by Dr. Akhter Ahmed and Dr. Bingxin Yu, IFPRI at the The Feed the Future Zone in the South and the Rest of Bangladesh: A Comparison of Food Security Aspects Results of the 2011-2012 IFPRI Household Survey for the Policy Research and Strategy Support Program --

1. Patterns of Agricultural Production and
Practices: Feed the Future Zone and Other
Regions of Bangladesh
Akhter Ahmed
Bingxin Yu
Bangladesh Policy Research and Strategy Support Program
International Food Policy Research Institute
Workshop on
The Feed the Future Zone in the South and the Rest of Bangladesh:
A Comparison of Food Security Aspects
16 January 2013
Dhaka

2. Data
Data for the analysis came from the Bangladesh Integrated
Household Survey (BIHS).
Agricultural module of BIHS collected information on
Landownership and tenure; agricultural production, input use
and costs (plot-level data); livestock, poultry and fisheries
production practices; marketing practices and revenues
BIHS sample is:
nationally representative of rural Bangladesh
representative of rural areas of each of the 7
administrative divisions of the country
representative of the FTF Zone of Influence
BIHS started in October 2011 and ended in March 2012
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3. SURVEY RESULTS
3

4. Inequality in Distribution of Arable Land
Gini coefficients
0.6
0.580
0.58 0.575
0.571
0.558
0.56 0.551 0.548
0.54
0.520
0.52
0.508
0.503
0.5
0.48
0.46
FTF zone Barisal Chittagong Dhaka Khulna Rajshahi Rangpur Sylhet Bangladesh
4

5. Inequality in Land Distribution in FTF Zone
The distribution of ownership of
100
Cumulative percentage of owned arable land
arable land in the FTF zone is
extremely unequal
80
42.5% of all households are
landless—they own no arable
60
land
Among those who own land,
40
bottom 25% of all households
own only 3.5% of total cultivable
land
20
The other extreme: top 5% of all
households own 27.7% and top 0
10% own 43.9% of all cultivable 0 20 40 60 80 100
Cumulative percentage of households in FtF zone
land in the FTF zone
Lorenz curve Line of equality
Gini coefficient: 0.55
5

6. Purely Tenant Farmers
40
37 37
36
35 34 34 34 34
30
30
25 24
Percent
20
15
10
5
0
FTF zone Barisal Chittagong Dhaka Khulna Rajshahi Rangpur Sylhet Bangladesh
Divisions
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7. Distribution of Farm Size Groups
FTF Zone Rural Bangladesh
50 50
43.8 44.6
40 37.2 40 36.3 37.8
32.8
31.1
30 27.8 26.7 30
21.6
20 20
15.6
11.8
8.3 7.8 9.6
10 10 7.3
0 0
Marginal Small (0.5 - Medium (1.5 Large (2.5 Marginal Small (0.5 - Medium (1.5 Large (2.5
(less than 0.5 1.49 acres) - 2.49 acres) acres and (less than 0.5 1.49 acres) - 2.49 acres) acres and
acre) more) acre) more)
Percent of farmers Percent of farmers
Percent of total operated land Percent of total operated land
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8. Fertilizer Use by Farm Size Groups
FTF Zone Bangladesh
250 250
226 219 221
208 214
203
200 200
194
Metric tons per hectare
Metric tons per hectare
180
150 150
100 100
50 50
0 0
Marginal Small (0.5 - Medium Large (2.5 Marginal Small (0.5 - Medium Large (2.5
(less than 1.49 acres) (1.5 - 2.49 acres and (less than 1.49 acres) (1.5 - 2.49 acres and
0.5 acre) acres) more) 0.5 acre) acres) more)
Urea fertilizer Urea fertilizer
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9. Rice Yields by Farm Size Groups
FTF Zone Bangladesh
2.95
3 2.82 3 2.90 2.87 2.83 2.81
2.68 2.62
Metric tons per hectare
Metric tons per hectare
2 2
1 1
0 0
Marginal Small (0.5 - Medium Large (2.5 Marginal Small (0.5 - Medium Large (2.5
(less than 1.49 acres) (1.5 - 2.49 acres and (less than 1.49 acres) (1.5 - 2.49 acres and
0.5 acre) acres) more) 0.5 acre) acres) more)
Yield of all rice Yild of all rice
9

10. Comparing Fertilizer Application With
Recommended Dose for Rice Crops: FTF Zone
HYV aman HYV boro
200 300 269 260
181
166 250
Kilograms /hectare
Kilograms /hectare
150
200
101
100 91 150 131 130 121
69
100
50 43 64
50
0 0
Urea TSP MoP Urea TSP MoP
Recommended dose Recommended dose
Actual use Actual use
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11. Yields of Rice: FTF Zone
5
4.07
Yield (metric tons/hectare)
4 3.75 3.80
3 2.81
2.51
2.32
2.13
1.93
2
1.41 1.51
1.18
1
0
Aus local Aus HYV All aus B. aman T. aman T. aman All aman Boro Boro All boro All rice
local HYV HYV hybrid 11

12. Cost of Production for Major Rice Crops: FTF Zone
Cost per hectare Cost per metric ton
70000 65266 25000
20817
60000
Taka/metric ton
Taka/hectare
20000
50000 46935 47765
15000 13749
40000 37632 12827
11773
31779
30000 10000 9295 9182
20360
20000
5000
10000
0
0
Local aman HYV aman HYV boro
Local aman HYV aman HYV boro
Full cost Cash cost
Full cost Cash cost 12

13. Way Forward (1)
Improvement in food security can be enhanced by rapidly increasing
the incomes of small commercial farmers. These farmers dominate
agricultural production. Providing smallholders with adequate access
to institutional credit and effective agricultural extension services are
critical for agricultural development in the FTF zone.
Since there is little or no fallow land now available, future production
increases in Bangladesh will have to come from higher yields
This will mean developing new technologies and innovations through
research to address production problems in flood, drought, and
salinity induced stress conditions
Food and agricultural technologies must be disseminated to farmers
through effective extension systems
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14. Way Forward (2)
Prevalence of landlessness is very high and increasing. The capacity to
absorb the growing rural labor force in agriculture is extremely
limited. A shift of rural labor force out of agriculture requires the
creation of rural non-farm employment opportunities in higher
productivity sectors. Rapid development of rural-urban food value
chains is important for generating non-farm employment and
incomes.
While private sector activities are increasingly creating employment
opportunities and income, the public sector should continue to
complement private-sector activities. The GOB’s role in providing an
enabling policy environment for the private sector is crucial in this
regard.
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