Dealer-customer partnership in rice production demonstration: Assessment of private extension system in Bangladesh.

Traditional public extension worker-farmer cooperation in rice production demonstration is not working efficiently, therefore, private partnership-based demonstration has been attempted to introduce as its alternative very recently involving dealer-customer farmer. The study evaluated the private extension services rendered through dealer-customer farmer cooperation in Bangladesh. Thirty-three rice seed dealers and ninety-two customer farmers formed the samples for the study. Face-to-face interviews were employed as a quantitative method while focus group discussion was used as a qualitative method in the present study. Involving in the private rice production demonstration approach, customer farmers indicated high profit, greater involvement in decision-making, and improved marketing skills as the major advantages; while the dealers stressed the benefit received by the small farmers, improvement in their decision-making capacity and increased local rice production. However, the slow distribution of inputs during the production period was a weakness in the arrangement, which was mostly because of the dealers' lack of understanding of the customer farmers' needs. The private extension system being a new concept in the country may be observed over a period and gradually extended to the nooks and crannies of the country.

Do organic fertilizer impact on yield and efficiency of rice farms? Empirical evidence from Bangladesh.

Organic fertilizer is one of the critical elements of organic and sustainable agricultural development. This study analyzes the economic impact of organic fertilizer on rice farms' yield and technical efficiency (TE) in Bangladesh. The Stochastic Production Frontier (SPF) approach has been employed by using a sample of 2652 rice plots covering seven broad agro-ecological zones of Bangladesh. It also addresses self-selection into the organic fertilizer choice using propensity score matching (PSM) that corrects observed selection bias that potentially influences both decisions to choose and technical efficiency. After PSM, organic fertilizer users produce 16.67% higher yield by using 12.1%, 9.40%, and 42.1% less labor, other inputs, and farm capital for rice production. The organic fertilizer users are significantly 3.79% more efficient than non-user, suggesting organic fertilizer substantially contributes to enhancing the technical efficiency of rice in Bangladesh. Moreover, the average treatment effect on the treated (ATETs) in different matching is positively significant and confirms the positive impact of organic fertilizer on rice farming. Government and non-government organizations should encourage farmers to extensively use organic fertilizer for better production through soil health development and reduce the pressure of chemical fertilizer import and use.