PROFITABILITY AND TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY OF CHILI PRODUCTION IN SOME SELECTED UPAZILA OF BOGURA DISTRICT IN BANGLADESH

Abstract

Agriculture plays vital role and is taken as the most important sector of economy in Bangladesh. Bangladesh possesses very fertile land in which various types of crops are produced. Chili is one of the most important crops grown in Bangladesh. The goal of the current study was to measure the profitability and technical efficiency of chili farmers in selected Sariakandi, Gabtoli and Sonatola, upazilas in Bogura district. Primary data were collected from randomly selected 60 farmers during July month. Both tabular and functional analyses were applied in this study. The major findings of the study reveal that chili production is profitable Total cost of production was Tk. 353512 per hectare. Gross returns was Tk. 695263 per hectare and net returns was Tk. 341750 per hectare. Benefit Cost Ratio (BCR) was found to be 1.97 which implies that one taka investment in chili production generated Tk. 1.97. In this study, the technical efficacy of chili growers was evaluated using the Cobb-Douglas stochastic frontier production function. The coefficients of parameters like human labor, fertilizers and insecticides were positive where human labor and fertilizers are not significant but insecticides is significant and indicated positive effect on chili production. Others, Seed and irrigation were negative and significant indicated that negative effect on chili production. In the technical inefficiency effect model, experience, farm size, extension service and credit service have negative coefficients indicating that this helps in reducing technical inefficiency of chili farmers. The study also identified some issues, such as insect-pest and disease infestation, the use of fertilizer and pesticides, and the scarcity of high yielding seed varieties, which are primarily experienced by farmers of chili, and it made some recommendations for how to improve the current production situation so that the yield of chili per hectare might be increased.