Profitability and yield gap between research station and farm level of Binamoog-8

Estimating profitability and yield gap between research station and farm level of Binamoog-8 was conducted in five major Binamoog-8 growing areas of Bangladesh, namely Ishwardi, Magura, Natore, Jessore and Meherpur. The average cost of production in farm level of Binamoog-8 is Tk. 47373.55ha -1 and higher in Ishwardi (Tk. 53454.92 ha -1 ) followed by Meherpur, Magura, Natore and Jessore of Tk. 45160.28, Tk. 44300.14, Tk. 45232.95 and Tk. 48719.47 per hectare, respectively .The major shares of total cost were human labour, power tiller and irrigation. The net returns were Tk. 41160, Tk. 42902.30, Tk. 53603.18, Tk. 47494.60 and Tk. 40437.16 per hectare followed in Ishwardi, Meherpur, Magura, Natore and Jessore, respectively. The highest net return (Tk. 53603.18 ha -1 ) comes from Magura district for Binamoog-8.The undiscounted average benefit cost ratio over full cost basis were 1.77, 1.95, 2.21, 2.05 and 1.83 for Binamoog-8 in field level for Ishwardi, Meherpur, Magura, Natore and Jessore, respectively. The average yield gap of Binamoog-8 in farm level and research station was 129.05 kg per hectare. The yield gap between research station and farm level were 102.97 kg, 185.50 kg, 45.85 kg, 128.50 kg and 182.45 kg per hectare for Binamoog-8 in Ishwardi, Meherpur, Magura, Natore and Jessore, respectively. The highest yield gap between research station and field level was in Meherpur (185.50 kg per hectare) and lowest in Magura (45.85 kg per hectare). Farmers were facing various constraints in Binamoog-8 cultivation. Different strategies, such as lack of quality seed and fertilizer in appropriate time, lack of credit facilities, rainfall during germination period, insect infestation and pathogen infection, pod maturity in different times have been discussed as strategies to minimize yield gaps.


Introduction
Pulses are the most important protein source in the diet of the majority of the people in Bangladesh.It contains about twice as much protein as cereals.It also contains amino acid lysine, which is generally deficit in food grains (Elias, 1986).Pulse bran is also used as quality feed for animals.Apart from these, the ability to fix nitrogen and addition of organic matter to the soil are important factors in maintaining soil fertility (Senanayake et al., 1987;Zapata et al., 1987).Pulse fits well in the existing cropping systems, due to its short duration, low input, minimum care required and drought tolerant nature.A large number of pulse crops are grown in Bangladesh in respect of area and production (BBS, 2014).The national statistics of mungbean shows fluctuating trend in area and production and registered increasing trend in productivity due to introduction of HYV mungbean.It is grown three seasons a year covering 43,680 ha with an average yield of 0.68 t/ha (BBS, 2014).The concept of yield gaps originated from the studies conducted by BRRI in the seventies.The yield gap discussed in this paper is the difference between the potential farm yield and the actual average farm yield.According to Rao et al. (2010) the main challenges for research and development are to bridge the gap between actual and attainable yield by enhancing farmers' access to quality inputs, improved technologies and information.Patole et al. (2008) revealed that total yield for the production zones ranged from 550 to 770 kg ha - 1 for pigeonpea and 610 to 1150 kg ha -1 for chickpea.According to Burman et al. (2010) the overall gap in adoption of technologies was larger in the rainfed situation than in the irrigated situation.The yield gaps are mainly caused by biological, socio-economic, climate and institutional/policy related factors.In Bangladesh, despite the technologies developed by different National Agricultural Research System (NARS) institutes and extension agencies to disseminate the technologies, yield gaps exist in different crops of Bangladesh, such as rice, wheat, potato, oilseeds, pulses, etc. that may range from 19% to about 64% of the potential yield (Alam, 2006;OFRD, 2003OFRD, -2004OFRD, & 2008OFRD, -2009;;Roy, 1997;Matin et al., 1996).The existence of yield gaps was also observed in rice, mustard, and cotton in India (Aggarwal, 2008).In India, yield gap varied from 15.5 to 60% with the national average gap of 52.3% in the irrigated ecosystem (Siddiq, 2000).Yield gaps in crops are real and the challenge needs to be addressed in the interest of increased and sustainable crop production.The objective of this review article is to discuss the causes contributing to yield gaps in crops, suggest strategies to minimize the gaps to increase yield and finally make recommendations mainly to the government/policy makers to develop guidelinesor action plans to address the problem.

Materials and Methods
The locations for the study were selected purposively Ishwardi, Magura, Natore, Jessore, Meherpur districts.A total of 200 farmers were randomly selected as sample size by using multistage sampling method in the study area, 40 from each District.Data were collected from Binamoog-8 growers through interview schedule.Some descriptive statistics were used for analyzing the collected data.In the study, costs and return analysis were done on both cash cost and full cost basis.The production of Binamoog-8 is likely to be influenced by different factors, such as human labour, seed, chemical fertilizer, insecticide, etc.The following Douglas type production function was used to estimate the parameters.The functional form of the Cobb-Douglas multiple regression equation was as follows: Y= AX
Rainfall during germination period 5

Conclusions
In many countries of the world, profitability and yield gaps in crops between potential and farmers' yields are still substantially high due to the combination of constraints, such as poor management and economic conditions of farmers and lack of resources, especially credit and knowledge and commitment of the government.Efforts should, therefore, be made to minimize the yield gaps and increase and sustain production and productivity of crops by properly addressing the constraints.It is also essential to promote collaboration among research, extension, NGOs, and private sector to develop appropriate technologies with a view to narrowing yield gaps.
was converted to logarithmic form so that it could be solved by least square method i.e.Log Y=Log a+b 1 log X 1 + ....................... Research Station and Farm Level of Binamoog-8 was estimated by subtraction of yield between research Station and farm Level.

Table 3 .Yield gap between research station and farm level of Binamoog-8.
The average yield gap of Binamoog-8 in farm level and research station was 129.05 kg per hectare.The yield gap between research station and farm level were 102.97 kg, 185.50 kg, 45.85 kg, 128.50 kg and 182.45 kg per hectare for Binamoog-8 in Ishwardi, Meherpur, Magura, Natore and Jessore, respectively (Table3).The highest yield gap between research station and field level was in Meherpur (185.50 kg per hectare) and lowest in Magura (45.85 kg per hectare).Farmers faced various constraints (Table4) to Binamoog-8 cultivation like, lack of quality seed and fertilizer in appropriate time, lack of credit facilities, rainfall during germination period, insect infestation and pathogen infection, pod maturity in different times were reported to be main constraints.