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Food security through increasing technical efficiency and reducing postharvest losses of rice production systems in Bangladesh

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Abstract

Rice accounts for nearly 70 % of calories consumed in Bangladesh. Therefore, any effort to improve food security in the country must find ways to increase availability of rice. This paper investigates two of these ways: increasing technical efficiency of rice production and reducing post-harvest losses. Technical efficiency was measured from Cobb-Douglas and translog production functions for the rice production seasons Aus (spring), Aman (summer) and Boro (winter). Efficiency estimates ranged from 73 to 83 %, suggesting that the potential exists for substantial increases in rice production while continuing to use current technologies and inputs. Variables influencing technical efficiency were farm size, level of famers’ education, farmers’ experience in production, microcredit, training and extension. Post-harvest losses between farmer and retailer were estimated at 10–12 %, suggesting potentially an additional source of rice without changes in production. Reduction of postharvest losses were significantly related to the availability of extension services.

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Notes

  1. The crop–cut and farmer’s interview methods have their own problems and advantages and there exists no conclusive evidence to favour one method over the other (Fermont and Benson, 2011).

  2. Production functions were also estimated with the more general translog form, which has Cobb Douglas as a special case. However, we tested Cobb-Douglas against translog and were able to accept the hypothesis that production functions were Cobb-Douglas, except for one variety choice in one season. See Appendix A for more detail on these tests. Therefore, we present for all seasons – variety combinations except for the Boro-Hybrid combination where we present the results for the translog estimation.

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Acknowledgments

The financial support of the FAO for this study under National Food Policy Capacity Strengthing Programme (CF-6). We also acknowledge the constructive criticisms and suggestions of the Sr. Editor and Associate Editor.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Agricultural Statistics, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh, 2202, Bangladesh

    S. Majumder

  2. Institute of Agricultural and Food Policy Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Malaysia

    B. K. Bala & Fatimah Mohamed Arshad

  3. Department of Farm Power and Machinery, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh, 2202, Bangladesh

    M. A. Haque

  4. Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, Gazipur, 1701, Bangladesh

    M. A. Hossain

Authors
  1. S. Majumder
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  2. B. K. Bala
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  3. Fatimah Mohamed Arshad
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  4. M. A. Haque
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  5. M. A. Hossain
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Correspondence to B. K. Bala.

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Majumder, S., Bala, B.K., Arshad, F.M. et al. Food security through increasing technical efficiency and reducing postharvest losses of rice production systems in Bangladesh. Food Sec. 8, 361–374 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12571-016-0558-x

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