Measuring the Costs of Production Based on Sizes of Farm Operation: A Study on Rice Farmers in Jessore District of Bangladesh

Abstract

The quantity of rice production has increased regardless of the land operation size in recent years, but small and medium farmers still have a serious problem especially regarding the increasing cost involved in the production. As rice is the main crop, the condition of production, cost incurred in different inputs, purchasing nature of inputs and the source of production elements influence the cost of production, which directly effects rural subsistence. The study included three categories of rice farmers: small (30), medium (23) and large (11) in the district of Jessore in the south-western part of Bangladesh. The objectives of this study were to measure the differences in the cost of production of boro rice farmers on the basis of land held to determine further steps for their well being. The study found that although there were no significant differences in the quantity of inputs used for all categories of farmers, the unit cost of some inputs significantly varied between small - large and medium - large, thus affecting the cost of production. The reasons for the raised cost of production were that most of the small and medium farmers purchased inputs on credit, spending comparatively more than cash and they paid higher interest on borrowed money.