Estimation of Rice Production Function in Rajbari District, Bangladesh: an Econometric Analysis

The study was undertaken to estimate the profitability and productivity of rice for local and high yielding varieties in Rajbari district of Bangladesh. To this end, random sample technique was used to collect data from 193 rice producers with the aid of well-structured questionnaire and Cobb–Douglas production form was chosen to assess the rice production functions. The ordinary least square (OLS) method was minutely applied to the data set availed from different groups of farmers namely only Local Variety (LV), only High Yielding Variety (HYV) and both variety user farmers. The Empirical result obtained from production function analysis considering only LV user farmers showed that rent of land, seed, labour, fertilizer and irrigation costs had positively effected on the gross return of rice cultivation while insecticide and ploughing costs work negatively. In the case of only HYV users, the rent of land, fertilizer, insecticide, ploughing and irrigation costs were positively related, and seed and labor costs were inversely related with rice production. Results in the case of both variety user farmers showed that labor, fertilizer, and irrigation costs of LV and rent of land, ploughing and irrigation costs of HYV acted positively while rent of land, seed, insecticide and ploughing costs of LV and seed, labor, fertilizer and insecticide costs of HYV worked inversely in producing rice. Results also showed that most of the farmers produced rice in the rational stage (stage – II) of the production function over the study area. All results emphasized that irrigation cost is the key variable which plays a significant role in producing more rice in the study area. Finally, some suggestions are made towards increasing the volume of rice production in Rajbari district.