WHEAT IN BANGLADESH: YIELD GROWTH, PRODUCTION PERFORMANCE AND DETERMINANTS - Soybean and Wheat Crops: Growth, Fertilization, and Yield - page 209

districts/regions 3 together cover 31% of the total wheat area of the country (Table 1). Also,
each selected district belonged to different agro-ecological zones (AEZ) of Bangladesh,
namely, AEZ-3, AEZ-11 and AEZ-9, respectively 4 . Dinajpur is located in the north-west,
Rajshahi in the mid-west and Jamalpur in the mid-north of Bangladesh. In the second stage,
one upazila (sub-district) from each district and one union from each upazila were selected at
random. Next, three mouzas (one from each union) were selected at random for primary data
collection from farm households. However, due to an insufficient number of households in
one mouza , a fourth mouza was also selected at random to fulfil the required sample size. In
the third stage, a number of steps were followed to select the households to ensure a high
level of representation. At first, a sampling frame of wheat growing holdings was constructed
with the assistance of village leaders, record book at the union council office and other key
informants. The list included the names of household heads and their land holdings in the
selected mouzas . These farm holdings were then stratified into three standard farm-size
categories commonly adopted in Bangladesh (e.g., Hossain, 1989). Then, a total of 293 wheat
producing households were selected following a stratified random sampling procedure. Two
sets of structured questionnaires were administered. These questionnaires were pre-tested
prior to finalization. The survey conducted in 2004 covered wheat growing period from
November 2003 to March 2004.

Table 1. Selection of the study area and the sample size

Study
area

Area selection criteria Farm size categories

Wheat
area
index
(WI)

Intensity
Rank
(Out of 21
greater
districts)

% of total
wheat
area

Large
farms
(2.0 ha and
above)

Medium
farms
(1.01 to
<2.0 ha)

Small
farms
(up to 1.0
ha)

All
categories

Dinajpur 16.94 2 16 33 (92) 29 (86) 39 (122) 101 (300)

Rajshahi 9.12 4 11 19 (32) 32 (49) 52 (228) 103 (309)

Jamalpur 7.55 6 4 8 (11) 25 (46) 56 (178) 89 (235)

All area - - 31 60 (135) 86 (181) 147 (528) 293 (844)

Notes: Figures in parentheses indicate sampling frame.
Source: BBS (2000), and Field survey (2004).

The Empirical Model

The empirical model is specified with a restricted Translog stochastic production frontier
function.

5 5 5 7 2

∑ ∑∑ ∑ ∑

(5)

ln Y = α + α ln X + β (ln X ln X ) + ϕ E + τ R + v − u

i 0 j ij jk ij ik k ik m im i i

j = 1 j == 1 k 1 l = 1 m = 1

3 In this study the term district and region are used interchangeably to emphasize the large spatial variation between
our study areas.
4 There are a total of 29 agro-ecological zones which cut across many of the 21 greater districts/regions.