Economic Analysis of Post-harvest Losses in Food Grains for Strengthening Food Security in Northern Regions of Bangladesh

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1 IJARBAE ISSN: IJARBAE (July 2012) Vol. 01. Issue 03. Artcle No Full length Orgnal Research Paper Internatonal Journal of Appled Research n BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION & ECONOMICS Economc Analyss of Postharvest Losses n Food Grans for Strengthenng Food Securty n Northern Regons of Bangladesh Mst. Esmat Ara Begum 1* Mohammad Ismal Hossan 2 Dr. Evaggelos Papanagotou 3 1,2 Ph.D Canddate, Department of Agrcultural Economcs, School of Agrculture, Arstotle Unversty of Thessalonk, Greece. 3 Professor, Department of Agrcultural Economcs, School of Agrculture, Arstotle Unversty of Thessalonk, Greece. * Correspondng authors emal: esmatbau@yahoo.com/begum@agro.auth.gr Artcle Hstory Receved: Accepted: Avalable onlne: Keywords: Food grans, postharvest losses, food securty. ABSTRACT The postharvest losses were estmated at farm level n two major food grans, vz. rce and wheat n Rangpur and Dnazpur dstrcts of Bangladesh by usng survey data collected randomly from 72 rce growng households and 76 wheat growng households for the year The post harvest losses were maxmum due to late harvestng (1.95 kg/quntal n aman, 1.66 kg/quntal n boro and 0.96 kg/quntal n wheat) n both the crops. The household sze and postharvest loss of the farmers n both dstrcts had negatve and sgnfcant relatonshps wth ther probablty of food securty whch mples that the households are food secured n both areas. JEL Classfcaton: O11. Ctaton: Esmat Ara Begum et al., Economc Analyss of Postharvest Losses n Food Grans for Strengthenng Food Securty n Northern Regons of Bangladesh, IJARBAE 1(3): p Esmat Ara Begum et al. Ths s an open access artcle dstrbuted under the terms of the Creatve Common Attrbuton 3.0 Lcense. 1.0 Introducton Agrcultural products and commodtes that produced on the farm levels have to undergo a seres of operatons such as harvestng, threshng, wnnowng, dryng, baggng, transportaton, storage, processng, marketng and exchange before they reach the fnal consumer, and there are consderable losses n crop output at all these stages. A recent estmate by the Bangladesh Agrcultural Research Insttute (BARI) showed that the total preventable postharvest losses of food grans at 1215 percent of the total producton or about mllon metrc tons (MMt). In a country where 26 percent of the populaton s undernourshed, postharvest losses of 45 MMt annually s a substantal avodable waste. Accordng to a FAO and APO study (2006), postharvest losses of food grans n Bangladesh are 15 percent of the total producton. For the system as a whole, such losses have been worked out to be 5.19 MMt of food grans annually, whch ncluded 0.32 MMt of wheat and 4.87 MMt of rce. Wth an average per capta consumpton of about 453 gm/day of food grans, these losses would be enough to feed about mllon people,.e. about 20 percent of the entre populaton of Bangladesh for about one year. Thus, the postharvest losses have mpact at both the mcro and macro levels of the economy. Journal homepage: 56

2 Esmat Ara Begum et al. / IJARBAE (July 2012) Vol. 1, Issue 3 / Page No: Agrculture s the man source of lvelhoods of the rural household whch conssts of 75.4% of the total populaton of Bangladesh. The domnated food crops n Bangladesh are rce, wheat and maze. Rce, wheat and maze producton were MMt, 2.13 MMt and thousand metrc tons respectvely n 2010 (BBS 2011). Ths ndcates that crop sector s domnated by rce and t s the major source of calore ntake n Bangladesh wth a per capta consumpton of 221 kg per year (BBS 2011). Rce s the staple food n Bangladesh. It s grown on about 71% of the total agrcultural area and 77% of cropped area. Rce farmng s the man source of ncome and employment of the rural people. The average yelds of rce, wheat and maze n Bangladesh are low as compared to the average yelds wth smlar agroclmatc condtons n other contres (Tmsna et al. 2010). The government of Bangladesh therefore, encourages the farmers to ncrease farm productvty and mnmze the post harvest losses. 2.0 Related research The level of avodable postharvest losses of food gran at farm levels n Bangladesh s stll unacceptably hgh where almost half of people are stll far from beng food secure. Several studes reported post harvest losses of cereal grans such rce, wheat and maze (Bala 1978; Sngaravadvel 1992; Saxena et al. 2000; Sngh et al and Basappa, et al. 2007; Bala et al. 2010). Bala (1978) reported the estmates of quanttatve losses of paddy n Bangladesh at each stage startng from harvestng to retalng. The loss was estmated to be about 8% to as hgh as 22% countng all the processes between the harvest and retalng and the mportant stages of losses are threshng, dryng, dstrbuton and storage. The hghest loss reported to occur durng storage. Bala et al. (1993 & 1994) evaluated the storage performances of dfferent types of tradtonal storage systems and desgned mproved tradtonal storage systems for Bangladesh condtons for reducng post harvest loss. Basappa et al. (2007) reported the estmates of postharvest losses of rce and wheat n Inda at dfferent stages of post harvest operatons and the postharvest losses were estmated usng the survey data collected from 100 farmers, 20 wholesalers, 20 processors and 20 retalers n each crop n Karnataka for the year Tabular analyss was used to estmate the postharvest losses at dfferent stages, and functonal analyss was used to assess the nfluence of socoeconomc factors on post harvest losses at the farm level. The post harvest losses at the farm level were estmated to be 3.82 kg/q for rce and 3.28 kg/q for wheat. The losses have been hghest durng storage n both the crops. The factors that nfluence the postharvest losses sgnfcantly at the farm level were dentfed and some polcy mplcatons were hghlghted. Bala et al. (2010) found that the post harvest losses at natonal level from producer to retaler were percent for Aman percent for Boro, and percent for Aus rce. The estmated total post harvest losses of rce at farm level n Bangladesh were 9.16 percent, percent and percent for Aman, Boro and Aus respectvely. Total post harvest losses of rce at farm level s percent of the total post harvest losses and the storage loss s percent of total losses at farm level. The storage loss of rce s ( percent) and t s followed by dryng ( percent), harvestng ( percent), threshng ( percent) and transportaton ( percent). The estmated total post harvest losses of rce at processor level n Bangladesh were 1.30%, 1.30% and 1.13 percent for Aman, Boro and Aus respectvely whle the estmated total post harvest losses of rce at wholesale level were 0.17 percent, 0.18 percent and 0.19 percent for Aman, Boro and Aus respectvely and at retal level were 0.27 percent, 0.31 percent and 0.28 percent for Aman, Boro and Aus respectvely. Therefore, reducng the post harvest losses as much as possble s a vtal concernng ssue n achevng food securty of Bangladesh. Clearly the estmaton of postharvest gran losses and ts management practces and capactes would mnmze the magntude of loss for the achevement of food securty objectve. Some studes have been remotely touched on postharvest aspects whch do not go beyond the factors affectng postharvest losses (Alemayehu 1993; Wolday 1998; Bala et al. 2010). A few studes (e.g., Jonsson 1972 and Dereje 2000) focused on desgn aspects of storage nfrastructure wthout any reference to food securty. Moreover, the efforts made by polcy makers and development practtoners are to rase the natonal producton and productvty whle post harvest gran management ssues reman untouched. Ths study s undertaken to fll ths exstng gap n knowledge. Ths study on postharvest Journal homepage: 57

3 Esmat Ara Begum et al. / IJARBAE (July 2012) Vol. 1, Issue 3 / Page No: losses n food grans at dfferent stages at farm level would help to assess the extent of losses and dentfy the factors responsble for such losses. Furthermore ths study also analyss the determnants of food securty of the households n the studed areas. 3.0 Methodology The study has utlzed crosssectonal data obtaned from the survey of sample growers of rce and wheat through personal ntervew wth the help of pretested and structured schedules. The data collected from the households ncluded general nformaton about the cultvaton of food grans, the extent of losses durng postharvest operatons.e. harvestng, threshng, and dryng, packagng, storage, and transportaton, and on socoeconomc varables such as age, sex, household sze, educatonal background and famly labour Samplng For the selecton of food grangrowng households a multstage samplng desgn was adopted for the year of Rangpur dstrct wth a rce area of 2378 thousand acres (9.10 percent), out of the total rce area of thousand acres topped the lst of rcegrowng dstrcts. Hence, ths dstrct was selected for choosng rcegrowng farmers n the prelmnary stage of samplng. For wheat, Dnazpur dstrct wth an area of thousand acres (19.48 percent) out of the total wheat area of thousand acres stood frst of wheat growng dstrcts. In the second stage, two upazlas were chosen from each of the selected dstrcts and then two vllages predomnantly growng the selected food grans were chosen from each of the selected upazlas. Fnally, 18 rcegrowng farmers and 19 wheatgrowng farmers n each vllage were randomly ntervewed. In all, 72 rce growng households n Rangpur dstrct and 76 wheat growng households n the Dnazpur dstrcts were selected. Fnally, a total of 148 sample households were selected randomly for ths study Analytcal technques Averages and percentages were used to compute the postharvest losses. Informaton about postharvest losses was obtaned from the households durng followng operatons: () harvestng, () threshng, () cleanng/wnnowng, (v) dryng, v) storage and v) transportaton. The total postharvest losses were estmated as a sum of all these losses. Functonal analyss was carred out to examne the factors affectng postharvest losses at farm level n rce and wheat, as used by Nag et al. (2000) n chckpea. The followng multple lnear regresson functon was specfed n the present study: Y a0 a1 X1 a2 X 2 a3 X a9 X 9 e (1) Where, Y = Postharvest losses of rce/wheat at farm level n quntals per hectare. X 1 = Age of the respondents n years. X 2 = Educaton of the respondents n years. X 3 = Total producton of rce/wheat n quntals. X 4 = Area under rce/wheat (hectare). X 5 = Storage dummy whch takes the value 1 f the storage faclty was adequate and value 0 otherwse. X 6 = Weather dummy whch takes the value 1 f the weather durng harvestng was favorable and value 0, otherwse. X 7 = Transportaton dummy whch takes the value 1 f transport faclty was adequate and value 0 otherwse. X 8 = Threshng machne dummy whch takes the value 1 f avalablty of threshng machne durng harvestng was adequate, 0, otherwse. X 9 = Labour dummy whch takes the value 1 f the labour avalablty durng harvestng was adequate and value 0, otherwse. e = Randomerror. Journal homepage: 58

4 Esmat Ara Begum et al. / IJARBAE (July 2012) Vol. 1, Issue 3 / Page No: Determnants of food securty Food securty exsts when all people at all tmes have access to suffcent, safe and nutrtous food to meet ther detary needs and food preferences for an actve and healthy lfe (FAO, 2002). Food securty for a household means access by all members at all tmes to enough food for an actve and healthy lfe. The total food ntake proposed by Yusuf and Islam (2005) s 2345 kcal/cap and t s mdway between the values suggested by WHO (2310 kcal) and FAO (2400 kcal) was used for ths study. The dependent varable that s food securty was measured as follows: Frstly, rce and wheat (food gran) avalablty from own producton, those purchased and sold by the households that s net transacton was calculated and used to determne calore avalablty for each household 1. The avalablty (through producton and net transactons) of foods n klogram were converted to calore, and dvded by the household sze and by 365 days to obtan the calore consumed per day per household. Secondly, the medcally recommended levels (mnmum levels) of calores per adult equvalent were used to determne calore requrement for each household 2. Thrdly, the dfference between calore avalablty and mnmum calore requrement for households was used to determne a household s food securty status. Households whose per capta avalable calores were found to be greater than ther per capta calore requrement were donated as food secure and were assgned a value of 1, whle households showed a calore defct were denoted as food nsecure and they were assgned a value of 0 3. It s also ndcated food securty lne for the household under study. A smlar approach was used by Hale et al. (2005). The Logt regresson model was chosen to dentfy the determnants of food securty among households. The Logt regresson model s one of the bnary choce regresson models n whch a dchotomous regresson varable s consdered as the dependent varable (Gujarat 2003). The Logt model was chosen for ths study because accordng to Gujarat (2003), the Logt model guarantees that the estmated probabltes le n the 01 range and that they are not lnearly related to the explanatory varables. Ths s an advantage over the lnear probablty model and t s easer and more convenent to compute than the Probt model. The Logt model (Gujarat 2003) used n ths study to dentfy the determnants of food securty s gven below: For each of exposton, z P E( Y 1/ x ) x (2) 1 1 P E Y X 1 e x x... x 1 1 Where, P Probablty of beng foodsecured. 2 2 n n z (3) The probablty of beng food secured The log of odds rato or the logt L = Ln z u The probablty of not beng food secured In order to obtan the value of z the lkelhood of observng the sample needs to be formed by ntroducng a dchotomous response varable Y such that 1f household s Y 0f otherwse food secured The ndependent varables hypotheszed to determne food securty among households are specfed as follows: x1 Annual ncome of households from farm actvtes. x Farm sze (hectares) 2 1 In ths paper the converson factors were taken from Yusuf and Islam (2005), quanttes of rce and wheat were converted nto avalable energy equvalents. 2 Yusuf and Islam (2005), proposed a detary composton for balanced nutrton n Bangladesh whch s 2345 kcal/person/day. 3 Out of the dfferent nutrents, only calores are consdered n ths study. Journal homepage: 59

5 Esmat Ara Begum et al. / IJARBAE (July 2012) Vol. 1, Issue 3 / Page No: x3 Area under crops (hectares) x 4 Household annual producton, n klogram gran equvalent, rce/wheat x Input usage (cost of mproved seed, fertlzer, chemcals, labor etc.) 5 x Household sze (numbers) 6 x Dependency rato (the number of non workng chldren and adult/household sze) 7 x Post harvest losses (kg/quntals) 8 x Prces (tk.) 9 Accordng to Gujarat (2003) the margnal probabltes of factors determnng food securty among households were estmated based on expressons derved from the Logt model as dp dx P 1.(4) P Where, Estmated logt regresson coeffcent wth respect to the th factor P Estmated probablty of a household food securty status. 4.0 Result and dscusson Extent of postharvest losses of rce and wheat The survey data revealed that average sze of farm holdng was 1.11 hectares for rce growers and 1.24 hectares for wheat growers. The sample households were found growng rce over an area of 0.44 hectares and wheat over 0.23 hectares. These sample households obtaned an average yeld of 3.6 q/ha of rce and 2.3 q/ha of wheat. The proporton of llterate farmers n the sample was percent for rce cultvators and percent for wheat cultvators Estmaton of postharvest losses at farm level The estmated postharvest losses per quntal of rce and wheat at farm level are presented n Table 1. These were estmated to be 4.93 kg/quntal n aman, 4.03 kg/quntal n boro and 2.35 kg/quntal n wheat at the farm level. The per quntal post harvest losses for aman was hgher to boro due to harvestng and threshng tme. Aman s harvested n dry/wnter season when grans are matured or over matured. After cuttng paddy farmers usually dry paddy wth straw n hs/her paddy felds. For that purpose they keep paddy 3 to 5 days n hs/her feld and n that tme matured paddy has fallen down from the spkelet whch n turn nto more post harvest losses. These losses were maxmum due to harvestng (1.95 kg/quntal n aman, 1.66 kg/quntal n boro and 0.96 kg/quntal n wheat) n both the crops. The amount of losses depended on the crop stage and tme of harvestng. The gran losses durng the threshng actvty were estmated to be 0.64 kg/quntal n aman, 0.56 kg/quntal n boro and 0.51 kg/quntal n wheat. The threshng losses were manly n the form of broken grans, whch were slghtly hgher, when the produce was threshed by machne as compared to manual threshng. The losses due to dryng operaton n grans were estmated to be 0.53 kg/quntal n aman, 0.40 kg/quntal n boro and 0.32 kg/quntal n wheat. Table 01: Estmated postharvest losses at dfferent stages of farm level n rce and wheat Rce Wheat Aman Boro Stages Loss Loss Loss Loss Loss Loss (kg/quntal) ( percent) (kg/ quntal) (percent) (kg/ quntal) (percent) Harvestng Threshng Cleanng/Wnnowng Dryng Storage Journal homepage: 60

6 Esmat Ara Begum et al. / IJARBAE (July 2012) Vol. 1, Issue 3 / Page No: Transportaton & Packagng Total postharvest losses at farm level These were manly due to use of tradtonal methods of dryng by the farmers and eatng by the poultry and brds. The losses due to storage n grans were estmated to be 0.80 kg/quntal n aman, 0.61 kg/quntal n boro and 0.11 kg/quntal n wheat. The mportant factor leadng to storage losses was presence of rodents, nsects and dampness at storage places. The gran losses as a result of faulty transportaton and packng were estmated to be 0.69 kg/quntal n aman, 0.56 kg/quntal n boro and 0.13 kg/quntal n wheat. A majorty of the producers used vaar and rckshaw to transport the produce to dfferent market places. The losses durng cleanng/wnnowng operaton were estmated to be 0.32 kg/quntal n aman, 0.24 kg/quntal n boro and 0.32 kg/quntal n wheat Factors affectng postharvest losses at farm level For studyng the nfluence of dfferent socoeconomc features of farmers on postharvest losses at the farm level, a multple lnear regresson analyss was carred out. The estmated regresson coeffcents are presented n Table 2. The varatons n 10 ndependent varables ncluded n the regresson model explaned nearly 59 percent varatons n the total postharvest losses n rce and 46 percent n the case of wheat. The Frato was sgnfcant n both the cases, ndcatng thereby the good ft of the regresson models. The regresson coeffcents of all the varables, except age, area under crop, labor dummy and transport dummy were postve n the model for aman rce. In the case of boro except age, area under the crop, weather dummy and labor dummy the coeffcent of all varables were postve n the model. The postharvest losses were postvely and sgnfcantly condtoned by total producton of aman rce and by total producton of boro rce, rrgaton area under boro rce. These losses n aman rce ncreased wth ncrease n output. These losses n boro rce ncreased wth ncrease n output and rrgaton. The postharvest losses were negatvely assocated wth age and area under aman and boro rce of the farmers. The stepdown regresson analyss showed that the postharvest losses n aman and boro were assocated sgnfcantly and postvely wth total producton and area under rrgaton, and negatvely wth area under the crops and labor dummy. Table 02: Factors affectng postharvest losses at farm level Rce Wheat Explanatory varables Aman Boro All Stepdown All Stepdown All Stepdown Intercept 2.995** (1.075) Age of the respondent.121 (X1) (.130) Educaton of the.012 respondent (X2) (.007) Total producton of the.238* crop (X3) (.123) Area under the crop (X4).637** (.130) Area under rrgaton.063 (X5) (.045) Weather dummy (X6).042 (.182) Threshng machne.055 dummy (X7) (.105) Labour dummy (X8).304* (.135) Storage dummy (X9).046 (.073) 2.784** (.978).225* (.124).610** (.130).067* (.039).251** (.085) (1.204).154 (.117).004 (.006).430** (.145).913** (.165).082* (.046).109 (.078).022 (.118).147* (.106).055 (.077) (1.118).325* (.130).829** (.155).084* (.042).256** (.090) (1.231).025 (.122).014 (.010).177* (.136).567 ** (.174).047 (.091).108 (.097).210 * (.079).062 (.091).004 (.075) (.941).158* (.122).461 ** (.130).173 * (.173) Journal homepage: 61

7 Esmat Ara Begum et al. / IJARBAE (July 2012) Vol. 1, Issue 3 / Page No: Transportaton dummy (X10) (.073) (.073) (.093) Multple R R Fvalue 8.348** ** 8.494** ** ** ** Note: Fgures wthn the parentheses are standard errors of coeffcents ** Level of sgnfcance p<0.01, * Level of sgnfcance p<0.05 In the case of wheat, the coeffcents of age, educaton, weather dummy and labor dummy had a negatve nfluence on the dependent varable. However, none of these contradctng coeffcents was sgnfcant. The stepdown regresson analyss showed that the postharvest losses n wheat were assocated sgnfcantly and postvely wth total producton and negatvely wth area under wheat and threshng machne dummy Determnants of food securty The extent of household food securty n the study area s presented n Table 3.The analyss reveals that majorty of the respondents were food secured for both crops. On the other hand, the households of rce and wheat were food nsecure percent and percent respectvely. Table 03: Food securty status of households n Rangpur and Dnajpur dstrcts Food securty status Rangpur (Rce) Dnazpur (Wheat) Number of percentage Number of percentage households households Food secured Food nsecured (Calore defcent) Total The results of the Logstc regresson model are as shown n Table 4 and 5 4. The logt regresson coeffcent shows the relatonshp between the dependent and ndependent varables. The chsquare statstcs from the Tables 4 and 5 shows that the varables ncluded n the model are statstcally dfferent from 0 at 5 per cent. Annual ncome has a sgnfcant and postve nfluence on food securty n both dstrcts (Table 4 and 5). Accordng to results reported n Tables 4 and 5, and keepng the other varables n the model constant, farm sze s postvely and sgnfcantly related to the probablty of a household beng food secure for both dstrcts. The household sze and postharvest loss of the farmers n both dstrcts had negatve and sgnfcant relatonshps wth ther probablty of food securty (Table 4 and 5). Ths mples that small famles are more food secured than large ones and famles whom had less postharvest loss were more food secured than had much ones. More clearly that the log of odds n favour of beng food secured decreases by the factors of and for household sze, and of and for post harvest loss n Rangpur and Dnazpur dstrct respectvely. Ths fndng s consstent wth the fndng reported by Lawal, et al. (2008) and Hale, et al. (2005). Area under crops, crop producton, nput usage and dependency rato though not sgnfcant had the expected sgns for both dstrcts. The area under wheat was found to have negatve but nsgnfcant relatonshp wth the probablty of food securty. Table 04: Maxmum Lkelhood Estmates of Varable Determnng Food Securty among households n Rangpur Dstrct Varable Coeffcent Standard Error zstatstc Probabltes Gross Annual Income (X1) e Farm Sze(X2) Area under rce(x3) Before a logt model was ftted.e. to check for the determnants of household food securty a correlaton matrx was computed all explanatory varables ncluded. Accordng to the results found no severe multcollnearty problem could be detected. Analyss carred out by usng SPSS and STATA. Journal homepage: 62

8 Esmat Ara Begum et al. / IJARBAE (July 2012) Vol. 1, Issue 3 / Page No: Household Annual Rce Producton (X4) Input usage (X5) Household Sze(X6) Dependency Rato(X7) Postharvest losses (X8) Prces (X9) Constant Note: Chsquare Table 05: Maxmum Lkelhood Estmates of Varable Determnng Food Securty among households n Dnajpur Dstrct Varable Coeffcent Standard Error zstatstc Probabltes Gross Annual Income (X1) Farm Sze(X2) Area under wheat (X3) Household Annual Wheat Producton (X4) Input usage (X5) Household Sze(X6) Dependency Rato(X7) Postharvest losses (X8) Prces (X9) Constant Note: Chsquare The margnal probabltes of factors affectng food securty status of households are computed usng equaton 4 as shown n Table 6. Accordng to Table 6, a unt change n annual ncome, calculated at sample means, results n a 63 percent ncrease n the probablty (log of odds rato) of food securty for Rangpur dstrct. The margnal effect of a unt change n farm sze, computed at sample mean of holdng farm sze, on the probabltes of food securty are for Rangpur and for Dnazpur dstrct (Table 6). Ths means that the probabltes of food securty ncrease by.101 (about 10 percent) for Rangpur and.018 (about 18 percent) for Dnazpur dstrct for a one hectare ncrease n farm sze. Table 06: Predcted Margnal Probablty of Factors that Determne Food Securty among households n Rangpur and Dnajpur dstrcts Factors Margnal probablty (dy/dx) Rangpur (Rce) Dnajpur (Wheat) Gross Annual Income (X1) Farm Sze(X2) Household Sze(X6) Postharvest losses (X8) The probablty of beng food secure, calculated at average famly sze of sampled households, decreases wth an ncrease n famly sze n both dstrcts. Each addtonal member of the household decreases the probablty of food securty by 2 percent for Rangpur and 0.4 percent for Dnazpur dstrct (Table 6). Table 6 also shows that the probablty of beng food secure, calculated at sample mean, decreases wth an ncrease n postharvest loss. Each addtonal postharvest loss of the household decreases the probablty of food securty by 3 percent for Rangpur and 2 percent for Dnazpur dstrct. 5.0 Conclusons The study has estmated postharvest losses n two major food grans, vz. rce and wheat. The postharvest losses at farm level have been observed as 4.93 kg/quntal n aman rce, 4.03 kg/quntal n boro rce and 2.35 kg/quntal n wheat. The harvestng losses have added up to about percent of the total postharvest losses n aman rce, percent n boro rce and per cent n wheat, whle storage losses accounted for percent and percent of total losses n aman and boro rce respectvely and threshng losses accounted percent n wheat. The functonal analyss has revealed Journal homepage: 63

9 Esmat Ara Begum et al. / IJARBAE (July 2012) Vol. 1, Issue 3 / Page No: the postharvest losses were postvely and sgnfcantly condtoned by total producton of aman rce and by total producton of boro rce and total producton of wheat, and rrgaton area under boro rce. The results of the Logstc regresson model showed that the household sze and postharvest loss of the farmers n both dstrcts had negatve and sgnfcant relatonshps wth ther probablty of food securty whch means that small famles are more food secured than large ones and famles whom had less postharvest loss are more food secured than had much ones. The probablty of beng food secure, calculated at average famly sze of sampled households, decreases wth an ncrease n famly sze n both dstrcts. Educatng and tranng the farmers on postharvest operatons would greatly help n reducng the postharvest losses n food grans. The establshment of smallsze cold storage unts n the producton centers would help to reduce the storage losses. References Alemayehu, L. (1993). Gran marketng reforms n Ethopa: a study of the mpact of deregulaton on the structure and performance of gran markets, Unpublshed Ph.D. dssertaton, Unversty of East Angla, Norwch. Azm, I. I. (1980). Post harvest loss due to storage pests n varous crops n Bangladesh, Post Producton Workshop on Food Grans, December 1214, BCSIR, Dhaka Bangladesh. Bala, B.K. (1978). Post harvest losses of paddy n Bangladesh. AMA. 9(4), Tokyo, Bala, B.K, Haque, M.A., Hossan M.A. and Majumdar, S. (2010). Post harvest loss and techncal effcency of rce, wheat and maze producton system: Assessment and measures for strengthenng food securty. Natonal Food polcy Capacty Strengthenng Programme, Report # 6/08. Bala, B.K., Zaman, M.A., Bswas, B.K. and Khondokar, A.R. (1994). Expermental studes on storage of paddy n dfferent types of tradtonal storage systems. Tropcal Scence 34, Bala, B.K., Zaman, M.A., Bswas, B.K., and Hussan, M.I. (1993). Studes on storage of paddy n three dfferent types of tradtonal storage systems. Agrcultural Engneerng Journal 2(3), Basappa, G., Deshmanya, J. B., and Patl, B. L. (2007). Post harvest losses of maze crop n Karnataka An economc analyss. Karnataka Journal of Agrcultural Scence 20(1), BBS (2011). The Statstcal Yearbook of Bangladesh, Bangladesh Bureau of Statstcs, Plannng Dvson, Mnstry of Plannng, Government of the Peoples Republc of Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh. BBS (2010). The Statstcal Yearbook of Bangladesh, Bangladesh Bureau of Statstcs, Plannng Dvson, Mnstry of Plannng, Government of the Peoples Republc of Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Dereje, A. (2000). The utlzaton and condtons of post harvest concept n Ethopa, In EARO, Post harvest food preparaton and storage, and research and extenson on agrcultural byproducts utlzaton technologes. Amharc Verson. FAO and APO (2006). Post harvest management of fruts and vegetables n the Asa Pacfc regon. Hrakawacho, Chyodaku, Tokyo , Japan and Food and Agrculture Organzaton of the Unted Natons, Vale delle Terme d Caracalla, Rome, Italy. FAO (2002). The State of Food Insecurty n the World Rome. Gujarat, N.D. (2003). Basc Econometrcs, 3 rd Edton. Sngapore, McGrawHll Books Company Inc. Hale, H.K., Alemu, Z.G., and Kudhlande (2005). Causes of household Food nsurecurty n Koredegaga peasant assocaton, Oramya Zone, Ethopa, Workng paper, Department of Agrcultural Economcs, Unversty of The Free State. South Afrca. Jonsson, L.O. (1972). Possbltes for mprovements of threshng methods n Ethopan hghlands, Agrcultural Engneerng Department, Swedsh Unversty of Agrcultural Scences. A. B., Omotesho, A.O. and Ibrahm, H. (2008). Analyss of household food securty among Agropastolsts n north central zone of Ngera, Asa Pacfc Journal of Rural Development XVIII (2), Nag, S.K., Nahatkar, S.B. and Sharma, H.O. (2000). Post harvest losses of chckpea as perceved by the by the producers of Sehore Dstrct of Madhya Pradesh, Agrcultural Marketng Saxena, H. K., Ajtha, K. R. and Sngh, K. R. (2000). Assessment of postharvest storage losses n wheat : case study n East Uttar Pradesh. Indan Journal of Agrcultural Marketng 16, 54. Sngaravadvel, K (1992). Assessment of losses n storage of paddy wth dfferent mosture. Bulletn Gran Technology 30, Sngh, D. S., Kumar, N. and Gupta, B. K. (2002). A study of postharvest loss of wheat and ts management n Kanpur Dstrct of Uttar Pradesh. Indan Journal of Agrcultural Marketng16, 53. Tmsana, J., Jat, M.I. and Majumdar, K. (2010). Rcemaze systems of South Ass: current status, prospects and research prortes for nutrent management. Plant and Sol 335 (1 & 2), Journal homepage: 64

10 Esmat Ara Begum et al. / IJARBAE (July 2012) Vol. 1, Issue 3 / Page No: Wolday, A. (1998). Maze marketng n Ethopa: Lberalzaton and prce ntegraton ssues, Ethopan Journal of Development Research 21 (1), Yusuf, H. K. M. and Islam A. (2005). Settng standard cereal ntake for balanced nutrton n Bangladesh. Food Securty n Bangladesh. Paper presented n the natonal workshop. pp October Dhaka. Bangladesh. Journal homepage: 65