FINANCIAL PROFITABILIBITY OF WINTER VEGETABLES CULTIVATION IN SOME SELECTED AREAS OF NARSINGDI DISTRICT

Abstract

Vegetables offer a low-cost source of nutrition relative to other food products. Bangladesh's climate and soil are suitable for growing vegetables all year round. This study was conducted in Narsingdi district to assess the financial profitability of vegetables cultivation. A total of 60 vegetable farmers were selected randomly to achieve the objectives of the study. Out of 60 farmers, 21 were small, 26 were medium and 13 were large. A face-to-face interview was conducted during November, 2019 to February, 2020 to collected the necessary information. The farm size was arbitrarily categorized on the basis of the land where vegetables and other crops were grown. Farmers with 0.010.33 acres were considered small,

0.34-1.00 acres were considered medium farmers, and those with over 1.00 acres were considered large farmers. Mostly descriptive statistics was used to achieve the objectives. The variable cost per acre of production of brinjal, tomato and country beans werefound to be Tk. 74260, 61870 and 66680 respectively, and their corresponding fixed cost was Tk. 13713 and 13094 and 13334, respectively. The gross margin per acre was Tk. 179240, 155630 and 229420 for brinjal, tomato and country bean, respectively. The net return per acre was found to Tk. 91267, 80666 and 149406 for brinjal, tomato and country bean, respectively. The undiscounted benefit cost ratio was 2.88, 2.90 and 3.70 for brinjal, tomato and country bean, respectively.The vegetable producers in the study areas were facing various problems including inadequate capital, attack of pest and diseases, lack of quality seed, lack of availability of adequate inputs and higher cost of inputs.