FACTORS AFFECTING THE POVERTY LEVEL OF RURAL FARMING HOUSEHOLDS AND ITS IMPLICATIONS IN PABNA DISTRICT OF BANGLADESH

Abstract

Bangladesh government is working with other sustainable development goals to eliminate extreme poverty by 2030. The proportion of population below the international poverty line in 2016 is 13.8 per cent which is the target to reduce in 2020 (9.30 per cent) and optimistic to achieve the target fully by 2030. Since most poor people live in developing countries rural areas and rely on agriculture for their subsistence, the study was conducted to examine the determinants of poverty in rural farm households of the studied area in Bangladesh. Purposive sampling procedure was followed for selection of the study. In this study international poverty line which is followed by Bangladesh this was taken for measurement the household either poor or non-poor. The international poverty line is people have to $1.90 a day or less in purchasing power to fulfill their daily needs. Here logistic regression model was used to identify the determinants of poverty and to determine the marginal effects among rural farming households. In binary logistic model, age of the household head, farming experience, household size, household dependents number, farm size, other members income, usage of modern agricultural equipment were found significantly associated with household being poor or non-poor. Most of the farmers suggest increasing the price of rice as well as other crops and creating farmers favorable agricultural market to save the farmers also give them subsidies during the season. Considering all of these it is recommended that poverty eradication programs should be targeted at the farming households since poverty is more prevalent among the farming households. So the challenge for governments, civil society organizations and the private sector is to provide the institutional environment and incentives that will allow farm households themselves to achieve agricultural growth and poverty reduction.