STUDY ON FLOATING GARDEN IN SOME SELECTIVE AREA OF GOPALGANJ DISTRICT: A TOOL FOR INCOME GENERATING FARM PRACTICE

Abstract

Floating garden practice is now a profitable enterprise to the farmers, but the socioeconomic

data and information of this floating gardening are very scarce in Bangladesh. So, the present study was conducted to analyze the profitability of floating garden’s crops and to explore the potentialities and constraints. Four upazilas of Gopalganj district were purposively selected for the study. A total 100 numbers of floating gardeners were selected randomly for conducting farm level survey during January to June 2018. Both descriptive and statistical tools were used to satisfy the objectives of the study. The average cost of floating garden’s crops production were different in the different categories (marginal farmer, small farmer and medium farmer) farmer. For the marginal farmer, per acre total cost and variable cost were found Tk. 208,490 and Tk. 93,990 respectively. For the small farmer, per acre total cost and variable cost were found Tk. 219,900 and Tk. 111,400 respectively. For the medium farmer, per acre total cost and variable cost were found Tk. 225,950 and Tk. 125,450 respectively. The major share of total cost is for human labor, support materials and land use. The net return from floating garden crops cultivation Tk. 216,010, Tk. 193,100 and Tk. 198,050 are respectively marginal farmer, small farmer and medium farmer per acre floating garden. The benefit cost ratios were 4.02, 4.00 and 4.01 on variable cost basis and 2.50, 2.40 and 2.45 on full cost basis, respectively. Human labor, seed or seedling, fertilizer and insecticides have positive effect on the yield of vegetables. Lack of technical knowledge, unavailability of HYV seedling and infestation of diseases were found as the major problems in floating gardening. Respondents were urged for government intervention to overcome these problems.