FARMER’S PARTICIPATION AND MARKET LINKAGE THROUGH CONTRACT FARMING IN SHIBPUR UPAZILA OF NARSINGDI DISTRICT

Abstract

Contract farming (CF) has been used extensively to integrate agricultural value chain both in the developed and developing countries. Integrating value chain with the farmer may create a win-win situation for all, as well farmer, contractor, government, agro-processing industry, wholesaler, retailer, customer etc. Participation in CF is associated with increased farm productivity and farmer income. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to analyze socio-economic factors affecting farmers’ participation in CF. The study used nationallyrepresentative

data of smallholder vegetable farmers in Shibpur upazila of Narsingdi district. The data were collected from 75 contract farmer and 125 non-contract farmers of Shibpur upazila. Binary logistic regression was used to analyze fifteen factors that potentially affected farmers’ decision to participate in CF. The results showed that nine factors had statistically significant effects on farmers' decision to participate in CF. ‘Household head's education, female head's occupation, family size, land type, size of land holdings, labor use, type of fertilizers being used, training or technical knowledge and average monthly income of the respondents had a positive influence on farmers' decisions. It was also found that contract farming ensure higher price of produces for farmer and reduces the retail price of bean. Besides those the study identified the problems and provide suggestions to increase contract farming participation.