Economics of Black Gram Cultivation and Its Impact On Farmers Livelihood in Two Selected Districts of Bangladesh
Economics of Black Gram Cultivation and Its Impact On Farmers Livelihood in Two Selected Districts of Bangladesh
Economics of Black Gram Cultivation and Its Impact On Farmers Livelihood in Two Selected Districts of Bangladesh
40261
ABSTRACT
The present study is an attempt to assess the existing agronomic
practices of black gram cultivation, its impact on farmers livelihood and
constraints of black gram production and marketing. Primary data from
85 farmers were collected during February to March 2016 through face
to face interviews. Descriptive statistics and Garret ranking method were
used to analyze the data. The majority of the farmers had sown seeds
during the last week of September to first week of October. The average
seed rate was found to be 19.36 kg per hectare which indicated that all
farm households used below recommended dose of seeds (35-40
kg/ha). The average yield of black gram was found higher than the
national average. The average net income was observed to be Tk.
26990 and Tk. 19845 in Sherpur and Jamalpur respectively. The
average gross margin was observed to be Tk. 37629 on total variable
cost basis. It was also found that average returns to labour was Tk.
1000/man-day in Sherpur and Tk. 692/man-day in Jamalpur district
respectively. It was also observed that all kinds of livelihood assets of the
selected farmers increased significantly through black gram farming. The
results revealed that the main constraints faced by black gram grower
were lack of irrigation facility, non availability of HYV seeds, low output
price, labour scarcity, lack of knowledge about improved varieties with
their production technology, excessive rainfall after flowering and weak
research-extension farmers linkage etc. Farmers also faced some
marketing related problems such as limited buyers, price instability, lack
of storage facilities and high market toll. Farmers cultivated black gram
because of higher yield, higher income, and easy growing.
Keywords: Black gram, garret method, farmers livelihood
*
Corresponding author email: mmohiuddin@bari.gov.bd
INTRODUCTION
Agricultural sector is the backbone of Bangladesh economy providing employment to
45 % of the total population and contributes about 14.79% of GDP (BER, 2017).
Pulses constitute an integral part of human diet and are potential source of protein for
the millions of people of Bangladesh. Pulses provide significant nutritional and
health benefits, and are known to reduce several non-communicable diseases such as
colon cancer and cardiovascular diseases (Yude et al, 1993; Jukanti et al, 2012).
They contribute 2.3% value added to agriculture in Bangladesh (Niaz et al., 2013).
Pulses are considered as ''the meat of the poor'' because still pulses are the cheapest
source of protein (Hamjah, 2014). Pulses are popular and common food, people take
this food almost alternate a day, so, this can play an important role to reduce the
malnutrition for the poor people of the country if it becomes available to that type of
people. The per capita consumption of pulse in Bangladesh is only 14.3 g day-1,
which is much lower than WHO recommendation of 45 g day-1 and Indian Council of
Medical Research recommendation of 60 g day-1 (HIES, 2010; Afzal et al., 1999).
With the increase production of nutrient-rich crops like more pulses and oilseeds,
farmers can ensure reduction of poverty at grass root-level with increase nutritional
food security at local levels (Rahman and Zilani, 2009). Among the pulses,
Blackgram is very much popular in Bangladesh and ranks 3rd in terms of
consumption and total area in which different varieties of this crop are cultivated
(BBS, 2014). Black gram is very nutritious as it contains high levels of protein (25
g), potassium (983 mg), calcium (138 mg), iron (7.57 mg), niacin (1.447 mg),
thiamine (0.273 mg), and riboflavin (0.254 mg) per 100g. Among the pulses, 45-50
% area covered by black gram in Jamalpur and 75-80% area in Sherpur district. Total
cultivated area in Bangladesh is 9805360 hectares of which 44.63%, 18.28% and
10.20% are suitable, moderately suitable and marginally suitable for black gram
production (BARC, 2016).
An estimated 6.5 million people live on the char and associated erosion and flood
prone areas which are 5% of the total population of Bangladesh. On the other hand,
total char area is 5% of the total land area of Bangladesh (EGIS 2000) where in
Jamalpur and Sherpur district, it covers 40-42% and pulse crops grown mainly in this
char land. In the existing farming systems, pulse crops fit well due to its short
duration, drought tolerance, less care and minimum input requirement. Cultivation of
different pulses is decreasing day by day. According to department of agricultural
extension, pulse area decreased 15-20% in year 2013-14 from year 2012-2013 in
Jamalpur and 30-36% area decreased in year 2013-2014 from year 2010-2011 at
Sherpur district respectively. Not only that the country is facing acute shortage of
ECONOMICS OF BLACK GRAM CULTIVATION AND ITS IMPACT ON FARMERS 85
pulses due to accelerated increase of requirements with its rapid population growth.
But price of pulses increasing and government of Bangladesh spent more foreign
exchange every year in importing pulses to meet up the local demand. Though, pulses
are excellent sources of proteins, but they are treated as minor crops and receive little
attention from farmers and policymakers. So the decrease in pulse production is a
major concern to the government. Considering the above circumstances, pulse
production should be increased rapidly to improve the national nutritional status
along with less outflow of precious foreign currency.
Many studies (Miah et al., 2004; Islam et al., 2011, 2013 and 2015; Kumar et al.,
2009-2010; Gowda et al., 2013; Kumar and Bourai, 2012; Hamjah, 2014; Niaz et al.,
2013) focusing on different pulse crop have been conducted earlier in Bangladesh
and India are very general and consider the problem from national or regional points
of view while no work has been done to understand the problems of black gram in
specific locations or districts of Bangladesh. For these reasons, the present study has
been undertaken to know the economy of black gram cultivation and its impact on
farmers livelihood in Jamalpur and Sherpur districts.
been asked to assign the rank for all factors and the outcome of such ranking has
been converted into score value with the help of the following formula:
% position = 100(Rij - 0.50)/Nj
Where,
Rij = Rank given for ith factor by jth individual
Nj = Number of factors ranked by jth individual
The % position of each rank thus obtained was converted into scores by referring to
the table given by Garrett. Then for each factor, the scores of each individual are
added and then total value of scores and mean values of score is calculated. The
factors having highest mean value is considered to be the most important factor.
Sowing of seeds
Farmers followed broad casting method for sowing black gram seeds in all areas.
Maximum farmers sowed the seeds during last week of September to first week of
October (Table 2). After removal of water from their land, farmers broad casted black
gram seeds in their field. The time of seed sowing depended on when flood waters
receded. As there was sufficient moisture available in the soil, ploughing did not have
much effect on yields.
ECONOMICS OF BLACK GRAM CULTIVATION AND ITS IMPACT ON FARMERS 87
Variety used
Black gram varieties sown by the farmers are presented in Table 3. All of the farmers
of Sherpur used seeds of BARI Mas-3 where in Jamalpur 45% farmers used local
variety. On an average, the highest (about 66%) % of the farmers used purchased
seeds from the market followed by own seed (34%). The average seed rate per
hectare of black gram cultivation was found to be 19.36 kilogram which was below
the recommendation of 35-40 kilogram. Variety-wise yield was also observed and
presented in Table 4. It was observed that BARI Mas-3 performed better in
comparison to local variety sown in the survey plots.
Table 3. Variety used by the farmers
Variety Sherpur Jamalpur Variance between
% of the farmer respondents
Use of chemical fertilizer: Use of chemical fertilizer by the farmers varied from
location to location. Most of the farmers (about 71%) used urea followed by DAP
(17%), TSP (6%), and MoP (2%) for black gram cultivation (Table 5). It is noted that
there is no farmers found in both the areas used manure in their black gram field. It
was found that the average dose of urea application was about 49 and 103 kg per
hectare in Sherpur and Jamalpur district respectively. In Jamalpur district, the
application of urea per hectare was found doubled than recommended dose. It was
also found that, the farmers of Jamalpur district did not use MoP and DAP fertilizer.
Among the different kinds of fertilizer used, the rate of urea application was found
higher than those of other fertilizers and recommended dose also. In Sherpur area,
farmers used all types of fertilizer with excessive rate of DAP (Table 5). Bangladesh
Agricultural Research Institute recommended urea 40-50 kg, TSP 85-95 kg, MoP 30-
40 kg, and bio-fertilizer 4-5 kg ha-1 for its varieties to produce 1.5-1.9 t ha-1 black
gram (Anonymous, 2011).
Table 5. Location-wise fertilizer application by the sample farmers
Fertilizer Sherpur Jamalpur Variance between respondents
% of the farmer
Urea 52.17 89.29 7.73%
TSP 4.34 7.14 1.74%
MoP 4.35 - 0.75%
DAP 34.78 - 1.39%
Table 7. Cost of production, return to labour and benefit cost ratio of black gram in
the study areas
Location Average Average Return to Benefit cost ratio Coefficient of
cost ha-1 income ha- labour variation (in
1 Min. Max. Averag cost)
e
Sherpur 55449.47 82439.44 1000.23 1.36 1.88 1.49 13.40%
Jamalpur 55502.01 75346.67 692.14 1.29 1.47 1.36 15.11%
which livelihood are built, namely human capital, social capital, natural capital,
financial capital and physical capital.
Table 8 shows the improvement of livelihood assets of selected farmers in the study
areas. Majority of the farmers reported that quality of the components of human
capital has increased over the periods through gaining education and knowledge,
improving health condition, more access to nation, better training and development of
skill in all the selected areas. Almost all farmers involvements in different social
groups, their managerial capacity through black gram production had improved in the
study areas.
Farmers’ income had increased and they were able to have more cash savings and
liquid assets through black gram farming along with crop farming, livestock rearing
and fisheries. The condition of other major components of housing as well as safe
sanitation such as drinking water and paka toilet also developed considerably.
The livelihood diversification is a process of change which varies from farmer to
farmer and over the space and time (Ghosh et al., 2011). Therefore, the adoption of
any technology is not exclusive, but one of the factors influencing the changes in
livelihood of farmers. The rural livelihoods are also wide-ranging (Ashley et al.,
2003). Both crop diversification and farm sector diversification lead to livelihood
diversification influencing the rural economy; therefore, the adoption of appropriate
agricultural technology holds the key for development of rural economy (Mehta,
2009).
Table 8. Changes in human capital, social capital, natural capital, financial capital
and physical capital of farm household
(All are in % of respondents’ number)
Components Increase Decrease Constant
Human capital
Health and sanitation 61 14 25
Education 59 - 41
Knowledge/efficiency 23 - 77
Access to information 60 - 40
Social Capital
Involved in social group/activities 45 6 49
Political involvement 31 11 58
Self managerial capability 59 2 39
Social access 57 6 37
Decision making ability 67 3 30
Women empowerment 37 - 63
ECONOMICS OF BLACK GRAM CULTIVATION AND ITS IMPACT ON FARMERS 91
Technological constraints
An analysis of the data presented in Table 9 reflects that lack of knowledge about
improved varieties of black gram, seed rate, spacing, sowing date was ranked I, in
order to importance as perceived by the farmers. Lack of knowledge about insect pest
and disease management, lack of knowledge about fertilizer dosage and
recommended method of its application, lack of knowledge about seed treatment and
weed management were other major technological constraints identified by the
farmers in the study areas. Similar have also been reported by Yadav et al., (2002).
Environmental constraints
Table 9 reveals that three constraints were identified by the farmers as related to the
meteorological conditions. Excessive rain after flowering, terminal draught and low
soil moisture at the time of sowing and fruiting were the three major constraints in
this category. Similar have also been reported by Joshi et al., (2002).
Institutional constraints
Regarding institutional constraints it was observed that there was a weak research-
extension farmer linkage and there was no regulated market nearby where the
villagers could sell their produce (Table 9). Weak research-extension-farmer linkage
was ranked I and lack of regulated market was ranked II. The third in order in this
category was non availability of suitable literature.
Marketing constraints of black gram cultivation
The farmers also faced some marketing related constraints in the study areas. An
analysis of the data presented in Table 10 reflects that limited buyer is the main
problem in the local market followed by price instability, absence of storage facilities
and high market toll on output (Table 10).
black gram cultivation. While 33 % farmers in all the areas reported that they will
grow black gram as it is easy to grow.
CONCLUSION
Black gram provided high return to investment. This crop is gaining popularity in the
study areas very quickly due to its high yield potential. Appropriate level of input use
and time of operation is important for achieving higher yield and profits, but the
technology employed by the farmers were not at the level of recommendation. A
good opinion came out from the sample farmers in the study areas that higher yield
and income encouraged them for continuing black gram cultivation.
RECOMMENDATION
Traditional cultural practices are being followed by the farmers so, it is necessary to
provide information regarding proper time of sowing, seed rate, fertilizer dose, etc. to
the farmers. The findings of the present study provides the empirical feedback to
NARS institute (such as BARI, BINA), Agricultural universities who work to
develop high yielding varieties, DAE, BADC and various non-governmental
organizations working in agricultural and allied departments to strengthen the
research-extension farmers linkage by providing credible and timely information to
the farming community.
REFERENCES
Afzal M.A., Baker M.A., and Rahman M.L. (1999). Lentil cultivation in Bangladesh. Lentil,
Blackgram and Mungbean Development Pilot project, Pulses Research Station, BARI,
Gazipur-1701.
Akter, N., and Hossain, S. (2014). Socioeconomic impact of BARI sarisha 14 in Jamalpur
district. Annual research report 2013-14, Regional Agricultural Research Station,
Jamalpur. Pp.11-16.
Anonymous. (2011). Krishi Projukti Hatboi (Handbook of Agri Technology), Fifth Edition,
Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, Gazipur-1701. Bangladesh.
Ashley, C., Start, D., Slater, R., and Deshingkar, P. (2003). Understanding Livelihoods in
Rural India: Diversity,Change and Exclusion. Policy Guidance Sheets produced by the
Overseas Development Institute for the Livelihood Options Study, funded by the UK
Department for International Development (DFID).
BARC. (2016). Crop calendar produced by Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council,
Farmgate, Dhaka. Bangladesh.
BBS. (2014). Statistical Yearbook of Bangladesh, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, Ministry
of Planning, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, Dhaka.
BER. (2017). Bangladesh Economic Review, Department of Finance, Ministry of Finance,
Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, Dhaka.
DFID. (2000). Department for International Development. Sustainable livelihood guidance
sheets. Victoria Street, London, SW1E5JL, UK.
ECONOMICS OF BLACK GRAM CULTIVATION AND ITS IMPACT ON FARMERS 95
Mehta, R. (2009). Rural Livelihood Diversification and its Measurement Issues: Focus India.
Wye City Group on Rural Statistics and Agricultural Household Income, Second
Annual Meeting, 11-12 June. FAO, Rome.
Miah, M.A.M., Akter, M.S., and Bakr, M.A. (2004). Status of pulses varieties adoption in
Bangladesh: a farm level study. Bangladesh Journal of Agricultural Economics
XXVII(2): 107-122
Niaz, M.F.R., Baten, M.A., Roy, A., and Hossain, M.M. (2013). Forecasting of Lentil Pulse
Production: An Econometric Analysis. Australian Journal of Basic & Applied
Sciences, 7(2): 819-824.
Niaz, M.F.R., Aziz, M.A., Rahman, M.M., and Mohammad, N. (2013). Modeling on Grass
Pea and Mung Bean Pulse Production in Bangladesh Using ARIMA Model. IOSR
Journal of Agriculture and Veterinary Science. 6(1): 20-31.
Rahman, M.L., and Zilani, M.A. (2009). Agricultural Research Priority: Vision-2030 and
beyond Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council, Farmgate. Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Yadav, S.S., Kumar, J., and Ram, H. (2002). Sustainable pulse production problems and
Prospects. Intensive agriculture, 40: 10-12.
Yude, C., Kaiwei, H., Fuji, L., and Jie, Y. (1993). The potential and utilization prospects of
kinds of wood fodder resources in Yunnan. Forestry Research 6, 346-350.