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Abstract
This paper explores the market participation decision of smallholder farmers in
Bangladesh and tries to sort out the most important factors that influence smallholder
farmers’ decision to participate in the output market to sell their produce in Bangladesh.
To examine the relationship between the smallholder farmers’ decision to participate
in the market and the factors that affect these farmers’ decision, a Probit regression
model is employed. For this purpose this study uses primary data collected from 100
smallholder farmers of Durgapur Upazila under Rajshahi District. Main findings of this
study indicate that there is moderate level of market participation by the households
who decide to participate in the market with 57% sales of their produced crops. It
is found that farm size, household labour, income from livestock and farm income
might be the main factors that affect the smallholder farmers’ decision to participate
in the output market. These findings also suggest that the smallholder farmers would
participate more and more in the output market, if farm size, household labour and
farm income are increased in one hand and income from livestock is decreased on
the other hand. The originality of this paper is that it examines the phenomenon of
smallholder farmers’ commercialization in Bangladesh from the perspectives of market
participation, which may create an opportunity for further constructive debate. Finally,
development market infrastructure, provision of marketing incentives to smallholder
farmers and development of an institutionalized marketing information service are
recommended to enhance commercialization of agriculture in Bangladesh.