Supply Chain Analysis of Kataribhog (Aman Season) Rice at Dinajpur District in Bangladesh

The purpose of this study was to investigate the Value Chain of Kataribhog (aromatic) rice at Dinajpur district in Bangladesh. A structured interview schedule was used for primary data collected from the rice farmers. The findings of this study revealed that the yield of Kataribhog rice was 1250 kg/acre and gross return was 51,200 Tk./acre. The cost of cultivation of Kataribhog rice was 38045.75 Tk./acre. On full and current cost basis the Benefit Cost Ratio (BCR) was found 1.35 and 2.05, respectively. About 75% of the produced aromatic rice was supplied to the domestic market by the millers and different companies. Remaining 25% was exported in different countries. The study also found that, on an average the marketing cost of aromatic rice for bepari, aratdar (paddy), miller, aratdar (rice), wholesaler and retailer were estimated as Tk. 81.90, Tk. 91.80, Tk.761.71 Tk. 73.49, Tk. 95.57, and Tk. 75.57, per quintal respectively. The share of net margin (other than the farmers) earned by the faria/bepari, paddy aratdar, miller, aratdar (rice), wholesaler and retailer was estimated as 7.56%, 9.42%, 42.75%, 11.02%, 11.33% and 17.92%, respectively. The producer share to the total rice value was 63.53% with a farm-retail price spread of Tk. 2612 per quintal. In the study area, major constraints found for aromatic rice production were labor unavailability, pest and disease problem, high cost of input, high cost of labor, lodging problems. Besides, the constraints associated with aromatic rice marketing were lack of storage facilities, lack of price regulation and execution. Proper planning and measure from the government side to solve the problems in the production and marketing would encourage farmers for better production and distribution of aromatic rice in the country.


Methodology
In order to collect the primary data, two Upazilas of Dinajpur district were selected purposively on the basis of a higher concentration of Kataribhog rice production and distribution. These Upazilas are Dinajpur Sadar and Birampur. The study purposively selected a sample size of 100, includes 30 farmers, 20 paddy traders, 20 rice millers and 30 rice traders. The structured interview schedule was applied to collect information from farmers, millers and traders levels who produced, processed and traded aromatic and fine rice. The survey was conducted during the period November 2017 to April 2018. Both tabular and descriptive statistics techniques were employed to analyze the data.

Analytical tools: Cost and return analysis
Following profit equation was employed to assess the profitability of paddy and head rice production. Net return/Value addition of producer  Table 1 clearly shows input wise cultivation cost of Kataribhog rice in Dinajpur district of Bangladesh. Total cost of cultivating Kataribhog rice was 38045.75 Tk./acre. Among the cost items, major share has been captured by the labor (37.51 percent of the total cultivation cost). Overall total input cost was found 65.70 percent whereas total fixed cost was 34.30 percent of the total cost. Rental value of land was the highest among fixed costs which was 32.99 percent of the total cost of cultivation.  Table 2 that the yield of Kataribhog rice was 1250 kg/acre and gross return was 51,200 Tk./acre where return of paddy and byproducts (straw) were Tk. 48750 and Tk. 2450 respectively. On full cost and current cost basis Benefit Cost Ratio (BCR) was found 1.35 and 2.05, respectively. That means, current return on investment in the Kataribhog rice production is 205 percent. Unit cost of production and return from grain of Kataribhog rice were 30.50 and 39.00 Tk. /kg, respectively in the study area. That means, farmers are getting benefit of 8.50 Tk. /kg by producing Kataribhog rice.

Supply Chain of Kataribhog Rice
The Bangladesh rice marketing channel has two segments. First segment includes supplying paddy from the farm level to the millers/processors and the second segment includes supplying rice from the millers/processors to the ultimate consumers. The first segment in supplying Kataribhog paddy included Farias, Beparies, Aratdar and rice millers. On the other hand, actors included in the second segment are rice miller, Aratdar, Bepari or wholesaler and retailer. Moreover, the Bangladeshi fine rice is being exported in US, UK and Middle-east Asian countries. Various types of marketing channels are shown in Figure 1.
On the basis of the importance given by the respondents during their selling of paddy/rice in the study areas, 10 the following supply chains were identified in case of Kataribhog rice marketing.

Aromatic Rice Supply System in Domestic Market
In the domestic market, about 45% aromatic rice was distributed from millers through rice aratdar, wholesaler and retailer to the consumer. On the other hand, about 55 percent of aromatic rice has been distributed by different companies of Bangladesh like Pran, ACI, Pusti and Chashi etc. The companies collected rice from the millers and then processed, packaged, leveled and sold by their own brand name. The companies marketed about 30% aromatic rice domestically and remaining 25% was exported in the foreign countries.
bran, dead rice and broken rice. The ratios of head rice, rice husk, rice bran and broken rice differ according to the types of mill. On average, the surveyed automatic mills in Dinajpur district could generate 56, 20, 8, 12 and 4 percent of head rice, rice husk, rice bran, broken rice and dead rice, respectively (Table 3). All the by-products that a mill produces have several useful applications. For example, bran and broken rice are useful for producing feed for poultry, livestock and fish sectors, while rice husks have been utilized as fuel for millers and the rural community. Now a days, rice bran is being used to produce Rice Bran Oil (RBO) commercially.

Marketing Cost of Bepari and Aratdar
Per quintal marketing costs of Bepari and Aratdar has been presented in Table 3. The marketing cost has been represented as a sum total of buying and selling costs. Total marketing cost of Bepari was Tk. 81.90 per quintal among them 67.40% was buying cost. Among the marketing costs items, the highest cost (36.64%) was for transportation followed by cost of bagging (29.30%). Besides these, the marketing cost included cost of loading and unloading, cost for market tolls, cost for sweeper, weighing charges, electricity and personal expenses etc. Total cost of aratdar was Tk. 91.80 per quintal on which 66.34% was buying cost. Like Bepari the loin share of the marketing costs of aratdar were captured by transportation (42.48%) and bagging (26.14%). Processing and marketing cost of miller The processing and marketing cost of rice included buying cost, processing cost and selling cost. The maximum cost of miller has gone for rice processing. It was 49.96 percent of the total processing and marketing costs of miller. The main rice processing cost items were labor required for soaking, parboiling, drying and milling (22.74%), electric bill (11.70%), and costs of bags for packing (11.18%). Total cost of miller was Tk. 761.71 per quintal among them 24.04% and 25.99% were buying cost and selling cost, respectively. Details of the cost of processing and marketing are provided in Table 4.   Table 5 represents per quintal average costs of Aratdar, wholesaler and retailer. Aratdar bore less cost because they are commission agents. They are not responsible for transportation and labor costs in in the marketing system. As commission agents, the main costs of traders are salary of permanent staffs (43.61%) and rent of the premise (18.69%). The total marketing cost of a quintal of rice calculated for aratdars was Tk. 73.49. The total marketing cost of wholesaler was Tk. 95.57 per quintal. Among the marketing cost items, transportation cost was the highest (34.13%) followed by the cost of bagging (29.86%). Retailers have to incur costs like labor cost, loading and unloading charge, transportation cost etc. It was observed that the total cost of marketing incurred by retailers in the terminal market was Tk. 75.57/quintal among which transportation cost was the highest (38.57% of the total marketing cost) followed by loading and unloading (16.53%) and cost of bagging (16.53%).  Vol.11, No.1, 2019 13 (42.75%) amongst the traders. The second highest cost was incurred by wholesaler (8.10%) and earned 11.33 percent of the total net marketing margin. The rice retailer captured 17.92 percent of total net marketing margin by incurring 6.40 percent of the total marketing cost. The aratdar earned 11.02 percent of the net marketing margin by incurring only 6.23 percent of the total marketing cost. Share of net profit earned by the paddy aratdar and bepari were 9.42 and 7.56 percent, respectively. Producer share and farm retail price spread of Kataribhog rice Producer sharer in consumer's taka is the price received by the producer expressed as percentage of the retail price (price paid by the consumer). For Kataribhog rice producer share and farm retail price spread were 63.53 percent and 2612 Tk. /quintal, respectively (Table 7). High producers share is an evidence of increasing the efficiency of the marketing system in favor of the farmer, while low producer share is an evidence of the fact that middlemen retained a large share.

Producers' constraints
The constraints narrated by the respondents regarding production of aromatic rice is presented in Table 8. Major constraints pertaining to cultivation of aromatic rice were heavy infestation of neck blast and sheath rot diseases. Ninety five percent of the respondent farmers were reported these as the most vulnerable constraints. The other most exposed constraints were labor crisis on transplanting and harvesting period (85 percent), high price of pesticide and insecticide (80.66 per cent) etc. Lack of storage, rational price and capital formation were the considerable constraints of Kataribhog rice production in the study area. Table7: Marketing and institutional problems of farmers in the study areas Source: Field Survey, 2017-2018

Miller's constraints
The major problems of the rice millers in the study area were interruption in electricity supply (96%), high transportation costs (94%), high marketing costs (transportation costs plus others costs) 72.7 percent, capital shortage and access of credit in due time (64.4%), price instability (65.40%), storage unavailability (48.20%) etc. (Table 9).

Conclusion
Bangladesh produces several varieties of aromatic rice that has high demand in the country and abroad as well. The study found that total cost of cultivating Kataribhog rice was 38045.75 Tk./acre .On full cost and current cost basis Benefit Cost Ratio (BCR) was found 1.35 and 2.05, respectively. Millers and different companies supplied about 75% of the aromatic rice in the domestic market and remaining 25% were exported in the foreign countries. On an average costs of aromatic rice marketing for Bepari, aratdar (paddy), miller, aratdar (rice), wholesaler and retailers were estimated as Tk. 81.90,Tk. 91.80,Tk.761.71,Tk. 73.49,Tk. 95.57,and Tk. 75.57, per quintal respectively. Share of net profit earned by the faria/bepari, paddy aratdar, miller, aratdar (rice), wholesaler and retailer were estimated as 7.56%, 9.42%, 42.75%, 11.02%, 11.33% and 17.92%, respectively. Producer share and farm retail price spread were 63.53 percent and 2612 Tk. /quintal respectively. The present study identified some problems and constraints associated with aromatic rice marketing. The unavailability of labor, pest and disease problem, high costs of inputs, high cost of labor, lodging problems were the major constraints of producing aromatic rice in Bangladesh. Where as lack of storage facilities, lack of information, lack of regulated and co-operative market etc. were the constraints of aromatic rice marketing. Proper planning and measures from the government side to solve the problems in the production and marketing would encourage farmers for better production of aromatic rice in the country.

Suggestions
Aromatic rice production is highly labor intensive. Some specific policies have to be developed by the government for its availability during the peak period of crop production. Disease (Blast & Sheath rot) and pest (BPH) resistant aromatic rice varieties should be introduced. Marketing infrastructure and storage facilities should be improved. Farmers and traders should provide easy loan for aromatic rice production, processing and marketing. Market regulatory authorities should address the issues of unfair deduction at the market places.

Conflicts of Interest
The author declares no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this paper.