Effects of Marketing Practices on Farmers Profit in Northern Bangladesh

Agriculture is the main foundation of the economy of Bangladesh. This sector contributes about 17.22% to the GDP of the country and also accommodates around 45.6% of labour force. Introduction of new technologies has increased over the past few decades in Bangladesh’s agriculture. As a result, agricultural production of the country has increased tremendously but due to inefficient marketing system farmers do not received the advantage of huge production. Because of some inefficiency in the agricultural marketing system, farmers are deprived of the fair price of their produce. The price received by the farmers for their agricultural commodities are influenced by a number of factors. This study thus aims to examine marketing practice and the degree of influence of these practices on farmer’s profit in Northern Bangladesh. Two district namely Naogaon and Dinajpur were selected purposively from two division in Northern Bangladesh, then two upazillas and two villages were selected following simple random sampling (SRS) method for collecting data. The study used a set of questionnaire with five sections to collect data. To serve research objectives 216 farmers were interviewed using a set of structured questionnaire with face to face interview and 32 key informant respondents were interviewed using a check list. In order to achieve the objective, multiple linear regression model was used considering the farmer’s profit as a dependent variable and marketing practices as independent variable along with financial factor as an independent variable. The multiple linear regression model Y = β☐ +β☐X☐ + β☐X☐ + β☐X☐ + β☐X☐ + β☐X☐ + ∊ was estimated. The study found that almost ecnt percent farmers sell their produce from farm house or to the rural Hat at Bepari. It was found that, different type of intermediaries was functioning in agricultural marketing, these are, farmers, Farias, Beparies, Aratders, wholesaler, Millers, cold storage owner and retailers. Using multiple linear regression model it was found that three explanatory variables i.e. Sale of agricultural commodity at town market, Crop storing status, sell produce to public procurement, positively affects the farmer’s profit. The remaining two explanatory variables i.e. sale of agricultural commodities at harvesting period and received loan from informal sources negatively affect the farmer’s profit. Only one independent variable i.e. crop storing status is statistically insignificant factor and rest of four independent variables are statistically significant factors that affects farmers profit in Northern Bangladesh.