Adoption of organic farming and household food security of the smallholders: A case study from Bangladesh

Author: Md. Asaduzzaman Sarker ¹ and Yoshihito Itohara ²

Received 20 September 2009, accepted 4 January 2010.

Abstract

Smallholders are always vulnerable to food insecurity. According to many scientist, when smallholders will adopt organic farming as a means of livelihood then their chance of attaining household food security might be more risky due to relatively lower yield performance of organic farming. On the contrary, many scientists and researchers recommend organic farming for the smallholders due to its cost effectiveness and better performance for supplying safe food for the household members. Thus, to resolve this debate whether organic farming hampers or helps in attaining household food security the current study was conducted among the smallholder organic farming adopters of Tangail district in Bangladesh. Empirical data for the study was collected from 150 smallholder organic farmers by means of personal interviewing. The results of the study showed that among the respondent farmers 98% had attained household level food security, while only those who failed to attain household food security had started organic farming within last 4 years. Thus, the duration of organic farming was found as a very significant factor with household food security of the smallholders. The study also explored that education of the household head, farm size, household members, number of cattle and access to extension services are also significant for attaining household food security through adoption of organic farming.

Key words: Household food security, smallholders, organic farming, adoption, Bangladesh.