Cut-flower most profitable among 12 crops: Survey

Cut-flower is the most profitable among 12 selected crops in rural areas of the country, a study has found.
It is followed by tomatoes, onions, and mangoes.
This was found in a baseline survey conduced by the US-based International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
Akhter U Ahmed of the IFPRI and others were the authors of the survey, styled 'Agricultural value chains in the feed the future zone of influence in Bangladesh: baseline survey'.
The comparatively new crop is expanding fast with high potential for generating rural employment because it is the most labour-intensive crop among the 12 target crops.
Therefore, polices to facilitate rapid expansion of cut-flower production for domestic as well as export market can have high payoffs in terms of generating employment and income in rural Bangladesh.
The survey also found that as high as 82 per cent of marginal farmers own mobile phones in the country.
The marginal farmers are those who cultivate  less than half an acre of land.
And about 90 per cent of large farmers with 2.5 acres of lands own mobile phones.
It said new information and knowledge are critical inputs for improved agricultural practices and marketing of agricultural products.
"Mobile phone technology holds great promise in delivering information to resource-poor farmers and thereby integrating them into agricultural value chains," the survey said.
It said clear polices need to be formulated that take into account the critical role of private sector in this context, the survey reads.
The survey said the jute cultivation has the lowest return to investment among 'target crops'.
The survey was prepared for the USAID's agricultural value chain project.
The baseline survey sample consists of 1,950 farm households.
The 12 target crops are lentil, mung, potato, tomato, onion, chilli, coriander, groundnut, jute, coconut, mango and cut-flowers.
The survey was assisted by Ricrdo Hernandez, Arifeen Akter, Nusrat Hossain, Wahid Quabili, Zeeshan Abedin, Fiona Shaba and Redwan Rokon.
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