Productivity and Profitability of Sugarcane Production in Northern Bangladesh

Abstract

Sugarcane is an important industrial and cash crop. It is grown in almost all areas in Bangladesh, but commercial basis sugarcane is produced in Rajshahi, Natore, Pabna, Kustia, Chuadanga, Panchagar, Joypurhat and Thakurgaon districts. Because of available raw materials, most of the sugar mills are located in these areas. By considering the sugarcane production, number of sugar mills and sugar research institutes and the availability of sugarcane related information, we select Lalpur and Ishardi Upazillas under Natore and Pabna districts respectively as our study areas and a total of 90 samples are collected that mainly represent the actual scenery of sugarcane production of North-Bengal Region. To find the profitability and productivity of sugarcane producers, profit function and linear regression analysis are used. The result has shown that farmers gain profit from sugarcane production and the profit margin increases if the farmers grow inter-crop with sugarcane. Fertilizer, seed and pesticides significantly affect the sugarcane production where the use of fertilizer and pesticides are positively and seed is negatively related with sugarcane production. In case of sugarcane production with inter-crop, tilling and pesticides are positively and significantly and human labor is significantly but negatively related with sugarcane production. As it is shown from the study, to increase production and profit level of sugarcane, government as well agricultural organizations should encourage farmers for inter-cropping. More scientific research is necessary for improving the variety of sugarcane that will likely to reduce the gap of per acre yield between Bangladesh and other sugarcane producing countries.