IMPACT OF FLOWER CULTIVATION ON FARMERS LIVELIHOOD IN SOME SELECTED AREA OF BANGLADESH

Abstract

The study was designed to investigate the impact of flower cultivation on farmers' livelihood in Jhenaidah district of Bangladesh. For this purpose, primary data were collected from 115 flower cultivators and 45 controls from February to March, 2017. Descriptive statistics, step wise regression and Constraints Facing Index (CFI) were used for analysing data. Result shows that most of the farmers (76.5%) gained medium livelihood improvement through flower cultivation, while 13.9 percent had high impact of flower cultivation on their livelihood. Among the entire variables-attitude towards flower cultivation alone contribute 39.5 percent of the variation of the impact. The Majority (73.9%) of the flower farmers had medium constraints in flower cultivation. As per Constraint Faced Index (CFI) high labour wages positioned the first place as the constraints of flower cultivation. But the composite impact of flower cultivation on farmers' livelihood was moderate. Respective authorities like DAE, NGOs should implement and popularize flower cultivation project on a massive scale for improving farmers' livelihood.