Double Transplanting: Economic Assessment of an Indigenous Technology for Submergence Avoidance in the Flood-Prone Rice Environment in Bangladesh

In the northern part of Bangladesh a large proportion of land is medium and low-lying which are subjected to the risk of flooding from heavy rains during the month of August and September. Consecutive days of heavy rains after the crop establishment causes flash floods leading to death of seedlings and additional costs for re-transplanting. In response to this environmental problem, farmers practice a system of double transplanting of rice, locally known as Bolon to avoid crop failure from submergence. One-month old seedlings are transferred to another field with dense transplanting, and then re-transplanted to the main after the risk of flash flood is over. Scientists argue that the system would have lower yield and higher costs, thereby lower profits compared to single transplanting, but farmers disagree. The purpose of this study was to assess economic performance of the Bolon system compared to the normal transplanting. Primary data were generated from 200 farmers drawn randomly from five sites to test the hypothesis that Bolon is less profitable and technically less efficient method of crop establishment compared to single transplanting. A stochastic frontier production function model was used to measure the difference in technical efficiency of the two systems. Results show although rice cultivation through Bolon involved higher cost particularly for double land preparation and transplanting of seedlings, but rice yield as well as net return was higher compared to single transplanting. The estimate of tech nical efficiency shows the farmers practicing the Bolon system are more efficient.