Abstract

Rahman M. Shoaibur, Roy P. Rani, Bari M. Shafiqul and Sarmin I. Jahan

A study was carried out to evaluate the costs and benefits of three agroforestry systems like homestead, cropland and orchard agroforestry systems of Kaharole upazila under Dinajpur district of Bangladesh. An extensive field survey and measurements were conducted during July 2017 to January 2018 at different unions and villages of Kaharole upazila. A multistage random sampling procedure was followed to select the study area. Sixty agroforestry practices including 20 homesteads, 20 orchards and 20 croplands were evaluated for cost and benefit analysis. Initial three years costs and income data were collected from the field survey. Results of the production cost showed that significantly maximum production cost was in orchard agroforestry system (Tk. 98987 per ha.) followed by cropland (Tk. 90238 per ha.) and minimum in homestead system (Tk. 10854 per ha.) in the 1st year. Production cost was recorded decreased while income was recorded increased in the successive years in all the systems. The net income indicated that orchard agroforestry system was financially more profitable than cropland and homestead agroforestry systems, but the benefit-cost ratio (BCR) was higher in homestead as well as cropland agroforestry systems and lower in orchard agroforestry system. In spite of higher BCR of homestead agroforestry, farmers in the study area widely practiced the orchard agroforestry. It appears that the farmers’ decision regarding what kind of land use they will adopt depends not on the BCR, but largely on the net amount of income that they earn.