FINANCIAL PROFITABILITY AND RESOURCE USE EFFICIENCY OF JUTE CULTIVATION IN MADARIPUR DISTRICT OF BANGLADESH

Abstract

The present study was conducted to estimate financial profitability & resource use efficiency of Jute production in Madaripur district of Bangladesh. Two villages of Madaripur district under Madaripur sadar upazila were purposively selected for the present study. A total of 80 samples were collected for this study. The study is mainly based on primary data which were collected by the researcher herself through direct interviewing the sample farmers. Cobb-Douglas production function was used to satisfy the objectives. For calculating resource use efficiency, seven factors like cost on human labor, cost of seed, cost of urea, cost of TSP, cost of MP, cost of pesticides and cost of irrigation were considered. The jute producers had the opportunity to increase their productivity as well as profitability by proper utilization of these resources. In this study, Per hector variable cost and total cost of jute production were Tk. 50380 and Tk. 70380 respectively. The average gross return and net return were Tk. 128500 Tk. and 58120 per hactor respectively. Undiscounted BCR was 1.82 which implies that Tk. 1.82 would be earned by investing Tk. 1.00 for jute production. Gross margin was found 2.55. So, the Jute farming was found to be profitable for farmers. Returns to scale is 1.1 which means that the production functions exhibit increasing returns to scale. An increasing amount of investment in this production would further increase the returns from the farm. The study revealed that Human labor cost, irrigation and pesticide cost has significant impact on Jute production. Jute production delivers higher returns to farmers, as evidenced by the findings of this study. Farmers in the survey stated that improved yield and income encouraged them to continue producing jute. The study also identified some of the problems of Jute at different stages of Jute production. Institutional supports from Government and Non-government organizations for credit, input and technology may be helpful to increase jute production as well as income of jute farmers. Finally, on the basis of findings some recommendations were made for the development of jute sector in Bangladesh.