ASSESSING PROFITABILITY OF RICE CULTIVATION: A CASE OF SIRAJGANJ DISTRICT

Abstract

Bangladesh agriculture is dominated by rice cultivation as it is the staple food in the country. The purpose of the study was to assess the profitability of rice cultivation in some selected areas of Sirajganj district which was conducted at three villages of Shahjadpur upazila under the district. Out of approximate 912 population (The Population and Housing Census 2011 and SAAO) of the villages who were involved in rice farming activities, 91 farmers were randomly selected which constituted the sample. A well-structured Questionnaire was used to collect data from the respondents. Correlation co-efficient method was administered and nine independent variables namely: age, education, family size, farm size, time spent in farming, annual income, training on rice cultivation, use of information source and organizational involvement were considered to run the analysis. The findings of the study revealed that 90.11 percent of the respondents had profitability where 9.89 percent had no profitability in rice farming. The value of Benefit Cost Ratio (BCR) was 1.39 which mean the production of revenue from rice is economically satisfactory. Among the nine selected characteristics of the farmers correlated with profitability of rice farming only four variables namely: education, farm size, time spent in farming and use of information source had significant positive relationship with profitability. On the other hand, age, family size, annual income, training on rice cultivation and organizational involvement had no significant relationship with profitability of rice cultivation.