Constrains and determinants for improvement of rural livelihood in the coastal community of Bangladesh

Bangladesh Rice Research Institute, Regional Station, Bhanga, Faridpur, Bangladesh Department of Agronomy, Khulna Agricultural University, Khulna-9100, Bangladesh Department of Agricultural Chemistry, Khulna Agricultural University, Khulna-9100, Bangladesh Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, Gazipur, Bangladesh Bangladesh Sugarcrop Research Institute, Ishwardi, Pabna, Bangladesh Bangladesh Tea Research Institute, Srimangal-3210, Moulvibazar, Bangladesh Bangladesh Forest Research Institute, Chattogram, Bangladesh


Introduction
The economy of Bangladesh is predominantly dependent on agriculture. Agriculture is the prime producing sector of the economy which has significant importance for achieving sustainable food and livelihood security in large, dense and ever-growing population of Bangladesh (World Bank, 2016). In addition, it is the major source of livelihood in rural areas where most of the people live in. FAO (2014) reported that the agricultural and rural sector in Bangladesh has imposed a great impact on a macro-economic situation like employment generation, poverty alleviation, food security and nutritional enrichment etc. The land ownership size of Bangladeshi farmers is classified into landless (up to 0.5 acre), marginal (0.51 to 1.00 acre), small (1.01 to 2.5 acres), medium (2.51 to 5.00 acres), large (5.01 acres and above) (BBS, 2010;Quasem, 2011). The Dumki upazila of Patuakhali district is recognized as the area of food surplus due to the diversity of crop and adaptation of improved agricultural technologies (Hossain et al., 2015). In contrast, rainfed along with tidal water-based crop production is practiced in this upazila (Hossain et al., 2015;Rashid, 2020). The farmers of Dumki upazila are used to grow low yielding traditional photosensitive varieties (local Sadamota, lalmota, dhudkolom, moulata variety in Aman rice) and frequency is comparatively high (Hossain et al., 2015;Islam, 2017). The intensity of natural disaster is rapidly escalating due to climate change and it becomes a severe problem in the coastal region of Bangladesh. Tropical cyclones that form in the Bay of Bengal hits Bangladesh coast twice in a year, the most severe ones occurring in late October to mid-November and late April to May coincide with the harvesting time of major cereals (Kabir, 2016;Awal and Khan, 2020). This is the main drawbacks of the farming communities in this region to maintain their food security. For improvement of rural livelihood, the problems are confronted by the farmers that differs from farmer to farmer due to several factors e.g., personal, social, economic and phycological characteristics Mondal et al., 2020). These facts indicate the needs a prudent research survey to understand the problems confrontation and relationship with their different factors at Dumki upazila in Patuakhali district. The objectives of this study were as follows: I. To delineate the socio-economic conditions of the farmers and their farming characteristics. II. To explore the relationship between selected characteristics and crop productivity. III. To identify the problems faced by the farmers in agricultural production.

Study area
The research study was carried out at Dumki upazila, Patuakhal, Bangladesh ( Figure 1). It is located in between 22°23' and 22°30' north latitudes and in between 90°17' and 90°27' east longitudes. It is bounded by Bakerganj upazila on the north, Patuakhali sadar and Bauphal upazilas on the south, Bauphal upazila on the east, Mirzaganj upazila on west. There are 5 Unions in the Dumki upazila named by Angaria, Labukhali, Muradia, Pangasia, and Sreerampur having an area of 92.41 sq.km.

Climate of study area
It has a tropical monsoon climate as the whole Bangladesh prevails the same. Rain water is the major source for agricultural crop cultivation in this area. The monsoon prevails from May to October and 90 percent of the annual rainfall occurs during this period. The average annual humidity is 84% and it remains high in monsoon and the heavy precipitation during the months of April to September and scanty rainfall during the months of October to March. Maximum temperature is prevailed at 35.3°C and minimum at 12.1°C; annual rainfall is approximately 2506 mm (Banglapedia, 2008).

Cropping patterns of the study area
Different crop varieties are grown in Bangladesh but the rice is considered as dominant crop in terms of land use and production. Rice alone accounts for about 75 per cent of the cropping area in the country (Quasem, 2011;Ghose, 2014). According to Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) secondary data, majority farmers of Dumki upazila follow Mungbean-Fallow-T.Aman cropping pattern. Transplanted Aman is the principal crop throughout the region. Aus and Rabi crops (mainly grass pea, lentil, sweet potato, bean and chilli) are widely grown in non-saline areas. Other crops are sunflower, wheat, onion, cucumber, gherkin, watermelon, betel leaf, vegetables etc ( Table 1). The study area comprises different proportion of cropped area ( Figure 2). Using different cropped area, the cropping intensity of Dumki upazila was estimated at 222%.

Sampling the population
Landless, small and medium farmers involved in crop production were constituted the study population. The number of landless, small and medium farmers in this upazila is 3093, 4270 and 5630 respectively which reflect 88.43% of total farmers. Considering the farmers category, the farmer list was constructed with the help of Upazila Agriculture Office. A sample population was formulated by taking 50 farmers in each category.

Data collection method
Some secondary data was collected from different organization and online to make the delineation more vivid to researcher. For data collection, a set of interview schedule was designed for this study. Both close and open questions were used in the questionnaire. The questionnaire interviews were conducted at the pre-selected sites in the study area. Before going to make an actual interview, a brief introduction about the objective of the study was given to each of the farmers and assured them that all information would be kept confidential. Each question was explained clearly and asked systematically for their clear understanding. Different variable description and unit of measurement (Age, education, family size, family income, family expenditure status, farm size, experiences, source and level of income, status and source of loan, members participation in decision making, facing problems for rural development) was take into account.

Data processing and analysis
After data collection, these were verified to eliminate errors and inconsistencies. Any kind of inconsistencies in collected data were searched and discarded from the data. Data were processed and finally analyzed using descriptive statistics by Statistical tools for agricultural research software (STAR 2013). The data of local units were converted into international unit before analysis. ). The most of the respondents had small to medium sized family. Similar finding was observed by (Islam, 2018) and (Haque, 1995). The national average family size of Bangladesh is 4.50 members (HIES, 2010).

Results and
Year Figure 3. Age, farming experience, family size of three categories farmers.

Educational status of farmers' family
From the study it was found that educational status of farmers' family varied from Illiterate to Hon's level and it is observed that most of the families were poor educated that anchored with (Rashid, 2011) and (Biswas, 2015). Data of 150 farmers were averaged category wise. In case of landless farmer, 27% family members have no formal education, 28% have primary education (class I to class V), 28% members have secondary education (class VI to class X) and 16% members are of higher education (HSC to Honors) (Figure 4) In case of marginal farmers, 26% family members have no formal education, 29% have primary education (class I to class V), 26% members have secondary education (class VI to class X) and 17% members are of higher education (HSC to Honors) (Figure 4).
In case of small farmers, 25% family members have no formal education, 27% have primary education (class I to class V), 28% members have secondary education (class VI to class X) and 18% members are of higher education (HSC to Honors) (Figure 4).

Average family income of the sample farmers
Yearly income was calculated from non-agriculture (business, job, labor etc.) and agricultural sources (field crops, vegetables, fruits, livestock and fisheries). According to the survey data, it was found that annual family average income from agricultural sources was TK. 66758, 99,909 and 114,818 landless, marginal and small category farmers respectively (  (Table 2). Maximum income came from labor in non-agricultural sector which range was 35000-100000 Tk, 40000-120000 Tk and 0-95000 Tk in landless, marginal and small categories farmers respectively. From agricultural sector, the landless farmers income was highest obtained from livestock (maximum 80000), the marginal and small farmers income was highest 13000-130000, 8000-120000 Tk annually in grains production. (Figure 5). Relevant finding was found in the conducted study by researcher (Mondal, 2020).

Expenditure status and distribution
The chronological order of highest expenditure status is marginalsmalllandless. The amount was 244,272±18,960, 222,185±18,004, 218,676±18,796 respectively. The famers of all three categories spent their high amount of money to buy food. The range was 40000-180000 Tk annually ( Figure 6, Table 3, Table 4 and Table 5).
Cloths House Figure 6. Expenditute and distribution of landless, marginal and small categories farmers.

Accommodation facility
Most of the landless and marginal farmers live in teen shade house consisting of four rooms having toilet and electricity facility. Most of them having their own tube well for drink water and other uses. But they don't use any solar electricity. In contrary, the house having five rooms and other facility are almost same as that's of landless and marginal farmers.

Living Status of respondents
Maximum farmers use safe drinking water and they have electricity and toilet facilities. The entire farmer uses digital technologies like mobile, television etc.

Source of agricultural inputs
Most of the farmers collect agricultural inputs from market. Some are collected from their relative/ other farmer and their own effort. Very few farmers were getting the opportunity of government aid.

Extension contacts
Most of the farmers visited to extension officials and different booklet, newspapers etc. from agricultural fair and demonstration and watched TV frequently. Some farmers went to agriculture activities, dealers occasionally. Very few farmers went to BADC officials.

Adaptation of improved technology
Farmers were willing to take the modern technology. Integrated pest management (IPM), sex pheromone trap, balanced fertilizer, were the mostly used technology for crop production. As the area is low lying, they use "Sorjan technology" for vegetable cultivation.

Participation of agriculture training program
Eighty-seven farmers got agriculture training programs from department of agriculture extension about production technology of modern rice, vegetables production in homestead area, integrated crop cultivation and fertilizer management. Training duration is 1 to 3 days.

Preferred day for consultation
Most of the farmers were gave their opinion to cooperate with responsible agricultural personnel every Friday followed by Sunday, and Saturday at 11:00am or 5:00 pm in every week. Some farmers have no preference about the day and time. Actually, they involve in agricultural work at morning and after 11:00 am are available.

Status of homestead cultivation
Homestead vegetable production mostly depends on the climatic and edaphic factors. In case of edaphic i.e., land classification, land profile, drainage system of the land etc. are the major factor for the selection of crop suitability. The study area, Dumki upazila of Patuakhali district is medium high land area and for this reason, rice covers most of the total arable lands. Other crops are potato, bitter gourd, bottle gourd, chili, ladies' figure, spinach, sweet gourd, cauliflower, bean, cabbage etc. winter and summer vegetables are grown in the homestead area.

Problems faced by the farmers during crop production
Through the interview, schedule researcher enlisted and ranked 15 main problems which were faced by the farmers during crop production. The problems were given in Table 6.

Conclusions
On the basis of findings and its logical interpretation it can be conclude that most of the farmers of Dumki were not well educated and have medium family size. Cereal crops were the major crops of that village and limited number of vegetables were grown in homestead area for their own consumption and selling purpose. The major crops grown during Kharif were B. Aus, T. Aus, T. Aman; during Robi were Boro rice, Soybean, Mungbean, Grasspea, Cowpea, Lentil, Groundnut, Chilli and summer and winter vegetables are grown limitedly. Farmers were willing to take the modern technology. The farmers, who have increased the degree of organizational participation and extension contact, have confronted slight problems in vegetable cultivation. Before taking a broad program for increasing vegetable production, this factor must be taken into consideration.