Abstract
Rapid population growth in Bangladesh is creating continuous pressure
on supplies of foodgrain and other basic necessities. In this study of
a small rural community the prospects for increasing production have been
investigated.
The main hypothesis is that adoption of technological innovations and
optimum allocation of resources can meet the demand for foodgrain and other
basic needs of an increasing population, but at the same time will result
in disparities in income between different farming groups and also between
farmers and landless labourers. The study also examines whether income
differences between farming groups are due to technological and institutional
factors rather than to differences in innate abilities.
The data required for this purpose was obtained through intensive farm
survey in the area selected and analysed by using tabulation and simple
statistical methods. Linear programming method was used to explore production possibilities.
The analysis shows that foodgrain production could be raised above
local requirements and community income above the level required for basic
needs. However, only the farmers would be entitled to meet their consumption need from the production increase whereas landless would rely
mainly on charity. The results show that contrary to the hypothesis of
this study, future income disparities between rich and poor farmers would
be reduced. However, disparities of income between farmers and landless
labourers would increase.
The relative position of a particular group of farmers with respect to
per acre yield of different crops indicates that the variations are not due
to differences in their innate skill but rather are related to the type of
technology and that kinship ties with the village elite exacerbated income
distribution problem. The findings support, but do not prove the
hypothesis that there is no differences in farmers' innate skill; differences in income distribution being due to the institutional and technological factors.
Expansion of Hand tubewell irrigation technology would reduce income
disparity among farmers. While encouraging rich farmers to prefer leisure
(rather than to obtain the highest possible income) would create work for
the landless labourers, further off-farm work would still be needed.