Regional productivity and convergence in Bangladesh agriculture

Sanzidur Rahman ()

Journal of Developing Areas, 2007, vol. 41, issue 1, 221-236

Abstract: This paper applies the sequential Malmquist index to calculate multi-lateral, multi-factor productivity (MFP) indices for agriculture in 16 regions of Bangladesh from 1964 to 1992 and examines convergence amongst regions. Productivity grew at an average rate of 0.9% per annum, led by regions with high level of Green Revolution technology diffusion. The growth mainly occurred due to technological progress estimated at 1.9% per year. Overall technical efficiency declined steadily at 1.0% per year due to falling efficiency in most of the regions in later years. Both cross-section and time-series tests confirm that divergence among regions disappeared and agricultural productivity reached convergence in the long-run. Policy options to reverse declining efficiency are considered. These include: strengthening of extension services, improvements in rural infrastructure, widening of R&D activities to non-cereals, and promotion of new technologies.

Keywords: Agricultural productivity; Regional variations; Convergence; Bangladesh (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O4 Q1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/jda/summary/v041/41.1rahman.html

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:jda:journl:vol.41:year:2007:issue1:pp:221-236

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Developing Areas from Tennessee State University, College of Business Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Abu N.M. Wahid ().