Abdul Mottaleb Khondoker, Rahut Dil Bahadur, Erenstein Olaf
Socioeconomics Program, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), El Batan, Mexico.
J Agribus Dev Emerg Econ. 2019;9(2):109-124. doi: 10.1108/JADEE-08-2017-0078. Epub 2019 May 15.
Constraints associated with public agricultural extension services imply that farmers increasingly rely on input providers for agricultural innovations and knowledge. Yet such providers are typically commercial profit-making agents and may have an incentive to suggest relatively costly inputs and/or high rates. The purpose of this paper is to look into the case of Bangladesh and the role of fertilizer traders in terms of farmers' decisions on which fertilizer to apply and at what rate. Using primary data, the authors examine farmers' chemical fertilizer use and the associated rice production efficiency, based on different information sources (fertilizer traders, government extension agents or own/peer experience).
DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: Using primary data, the present study estimates an ordered probit model and production functions separately based on whether or not a farmer relied on information from fertilizer traders or own experience and government extension agents, and examines the efficiency score of each type of farmer.
The findings demonstrate that the resource-poor farmers rely more on traders' suggestions for fertilizer application than public extension - but the actual fertilizer information source has no significant effect on the production efficiency of the rice farmers. This study, therefore, does not find exploitative behavior of fertilizer traders. Thus, this study concludes that small rural traders in Bangladesh are working as agricultural extension agents and provide necessary fertilizer application information to resource-poor farmers.
RESEARCH LIMITATIONS/IMPLICATIONS: This is a case study based on Bangladesh - an emerging economy in South Asia. The findings of the study may not be generalized for other countries.
ORIGINALITY/VALUE: To the authors' knowledge, this is the first study that confirms the role of agricultural input sellers as the extension agent in developing countries.
与公共农业推广服务相关的限制因素意味着农民越来越依赖投入品供应商获取农业创新和知识。然而，这类供应商通常是商业盈利机构，可能有动机推荐成本较高的投入品和/或高价格。本文旨在研究孟加拉国的情况，以及肥料贸易商在农民决定施用何种肥料及施用量方面所起的作用。作者利用一手数据，基于不同信息来源（肥料贸易商、政府推广人员或自身/同行经验），研究了农民的化肥使用情况及相关的水稻生产效率。
设计/方法/途径：本研究利用一手数据，根据农民是否依赖肥料贸易商的信息、自身经验或政府推广人员的信息，分别估计有序概率模型和生产函数，并考察各类农民的效率得分。
研究结果表明，资源匮乏的农民在肥料施用方面比公共推广服务更依赖贸易商的建议——但实际的肥料信息来源对稻农的生产效率没有显著影响。因此，本研究未发现肥料贸易商的剥削行为。由此，本研究得出结论，孟加拉国的农村小贸易商充当着农业推广人员的角色，为资源匮乏的农民提供必要的肥料施用信息。
研究局限/影响：这是一项基于孟加拉国——南亚一个新兴经济体的案例研究。该研究结果可能无法推广至其他国家。
原创性/价值：据作者所知，这是第一项证实农业投入品销售商在发展中国家充当推广人员角色的研究。
