A Comparative Economic Analysis of Sugarcane Cultivation with and without Intercrops in Selected Areas of Pabna District in Bangladesh

The study measures the relative profitability of different farming systems of sugarcane production in Ishwardi Upazila of Pabna district. A total of 60 farmers, out of which 30 with intercropping and 30 without intercropping farm were selected following a stratified random sampling technique. Simple cost and return analysis were performed to examine the profitability of sugarcane production. Cobb-Douglas production function technique was employed to determine the effects of some selected variables in the production process. The study found that most of the sugarcane farmers were illiterate and sugarcane cultivation was the main occupation of them. The study found that the per hectare total costs stood at Tk. 126663 and Tk. 110143 with and without intercropping farm, respectively. Per hectare, total cash cost of with and without intercrops farms was accounted for 74.46 and 72.90 per cent of their total cost, whereas the total non-cash costs per hectare amounted for 25.53 and 27.10 per cent of their respective total cost. Gross returns per hectare stood at Tk. 249416 and Tk. 159204 for with intercropping and without intercropping farms, respectively. The study explores that sugarcane farming for both with and without intercropping systems was profitable but with intercropping was more profitable than without intercropping system. The findings reveal that setts, human labour, fertilizer, power tiller and manure had a significant impact but insecticide had an insignificant impact on per hectare output for with intercrops farm, while for without intercrops farm manure and insecticide had negligible impact. Lack of adequate operating capital, lack of certified sets of sugarcane, labour scarcity and ownership are major acute problems that farmers had to face in producing the sugarcane.