Land Tenure System and Its Effect on Productivity, Profitability and Efficiency of Boro Rice Production in Northern Part of Bangladesh

Abstract

Access to land in Bangladesh is governed by the state rule but informal tenure arrangement is existing all over the country. Land productivity differs with the contractual arrangement between landlord and tenant. Inefficiency may arise due to sharecropping which is known as Marshallian inefficiency. This study investigated the productivity the productivity, profitability and efficiency of different tenure arrangement of Boro rice cultivation selecting 120 farmers from Rangpur district of Bangladesh. The stochastic frontier production function was employed to determine the efficiency. Moreover, t-test was performed to see whether any significant difference exist among tenure categories in terms of productivity, profitability and efficiency. Four types of tenure arrangements were identified as cash tenant, fifty-fifty input-output sharing arrangement, only output sharing arrangement and owner farmers. Result revealed that productivity and profitability was higher for owner and cash tenant compared to others. Significant productivity and profitability difference were found between owner farmers and cash tenants versus sharecroppers. Result also found that inefficiency level was significantly high for fifty-fifty input-output share tenant and only output share tenant compared to cash tenant and owner operator implying that Marshallian inefficiency exist due to sharecropping system in the Boro rice production.