Impact of Pineapple Cultivation on the Increased Income of Pineapple Growers

Abstract

A study was conducted to determine the impact of pineapple cultivation on the income of pineapple growers of Madhupur upazila under Tangail District. The study also aimed at exploring the relationship between the selected characteristics of the respondents and their increased income from unit area. The study was conducted during the month of March and April, 2007. Seventy five respondents were selected as the sample for the study by using simple random sampling technique. Most of the respondents were middle aged (49.3%), had primary level of education (56%), possessed medium farm (57.3%) and small family size (85.3%). The respondents had medium organizational participation (65.3%) and medium extension contact (83.1%). It was found that most of the respondents had sufficient knowledge on pineapple cultivation along with favorable attitude towards pineapple cultivation. Kachu (Colocasia esculenta), turmeric (Curcuma longa), ginger (Zingiber officinale), jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus) etc were the major crops used as intercrops with pineapple for proper utilization of land and higher economic return. It was also found from the study that most of the respondents belonged to the higher (54.7%) income category as their average increased income was 146.72 thousand taka per annum.

Full text

Impact of Pineapple Cultivation on the Increased Income of Pineapple Growers
S. S. Hasan*, M. A. Ali and M. I. Khalil
Department of Agricultural Extension & Rural Development, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
Agricultural University, Gazipur-1706, Bangladesh
*Corresponding author and Email: shinuextn120@yahoo.com
Received: 31 October 2010 Accepted: 17 March 2011
Abstract
A study was conducted to determine the impact of pineapple cultivation on the income of pineapple
growers of Madhupur upazila under Tangail District. The study also aimed at exploring the
relationship between the selected characteristics of the respondents and their increased income from
unit area. The study was conducted during the month of March and April, 2007. Seventy five
respondents were selected as the sample for the study by using simple random sampling technique.
Most of the respondents were middle aged (49.3%), had primary level of education (56%), possessed
medium farm (57.3%) and small family size (85.3%). The respondents had medium organizational
participation (65.3%) and medium extension contact (83.1%). It was found that most of the
respondents had sufficient knowledge on pineapple cultivation along with favorable attitude towards
pineapple cultivation. Kachu (Colocasia esculenta), turmeric (Curcuma longa), ginger (Zingiber
officinale), jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus) etc were the major crops used as intercrops with
pineapple for proper utilization of land and higher economic return. It was also found from the study
that most of the respondents belonged to the higher (54.7%) income category as their average
increased income was 146.72 thousand taka per annum.
Keywords: Pineapple cultivation, impact, increased income.
1. Introduction
Fruits play a vital role in the overall economic
performance of Bangladesh. The production of
fruits including pineapple is increasing day by
day in Bangladesh. Among all the fruits
produced in the country, pineapple ranks 4th in
terms of total cropping area and production.
During 2002-03, total production of pineapple in
the country was 154 thousand metric tons which
was increased to 210 thousands metric tons
during 2007-08 (Anonymous, 2009).
Generally, the ripen pineapple is consumed by
the people of Bangladesh. Green pineapple is
also used for making pickles. After extraction of
its juice, the left over is used as livestock feed
and also the tender leaves are used for the same
purpose. Various food items like squash, syrup,
jelly, etc. are produced from pineapple. Vinegar,
alcohol, citric acid, calcium citrate etc are also
produced from it. Pineapple is also
recommended as medical diet for certain
diseased persons (Moniruzzaman, 1988).
The tropical climate is better for pineapple
cultivation. Generally, it is grown almost all over
Bangladesh especially in hilly and high land
where there is no water stagnation. Long time
drought is harmful for the production of
pineapple. Drought affects its quality, quantity
and size. Although Bangladesh is not a tropical
country, the climate and the soils of many parts
of Bangladesh are much more suitable for
pineapple production. It is widely cultivated in
The Agriculturists 8(2): 50-56 (2010) ISSN-1729-5211
A Scientific Journal of Krishi Foundation

the districts of Sylhet, Moulvibazar, Chittagong,
Bnandarban, Dhaka and Tangail. In 1999-2000,
Bangladesh produced 148350 metric tons of
pineapple from 14101 hectares. But the area
under production and total production are
increasing day by day. During 2006-07 the total
area under pineapple production in Bangladesh
was 16978 hectares and the production was
238360 metric tons (Anonymous, 2008).
At least ninety varieties of pineapple are
cultivated in the world. In Bangladesh, however,
three varieties of pineapple are mostly grown.
The three varieties are: Giant Kew, Honey
Queen and Ghorasal. In the study area, mainly
Giant Kew variety of pineapple has intensively
been cultivated by the farmers for the last few
years (Mondal and Mrittunjoy, 1988). Apart
from this variety, one local variety named
“Asshina” is grown by a few farmers of the
study area.
So, pineapple cultivation plays a vital role for
socio-economic development of the pineapple
growers of Tangail district (the study area) where
once upon a time the hilly lands were mostly
barren. The life style of the people of that area
was under developed earlier. But after practicing
pineapple cultivation following some improved
techniques, the people of the study area uplifted
their condition socio-economically. Researches
especially regarding the impact of pineapple
cultivation on the socio-economic status of the
farmers are dearth. Providing pertinent
information through research is a crucial need
which might help in appropriate production
policies of pineapple. The present study was
undertaken:
1. To determine some socioeconomic
characteristics of the pineapple growers of
the concerned area.
2. To describe the impact of pineapple
cultivation on the increased income of the
pineapple growers.
3. To explore the relationships between each of
the selected characteristics of the pineapple
growers and their increased income from
unit area.
2. Methodology
Pineapple is extensively cultivated in all over
Madhupur Upazila in Tangail District. So
Madhupur Upazila of Tangail District was
purposively selected as the study area. Two
villages ie., North Laufulia and South Laufulia
of Alokdia Union and another two villages ie.,
Jalchatra and Moterbazar of Ausnara union
under Modhupur Upazila were selected as the
study area. Total number of farm families of the
four villages were 375. Out of these population,
75 respondents were selected as sample
following simple random sampling technique as
per the following formula given by Kothari
(2004).
Z2 × σ2 × N
n =
(N - 1) e2 + Z2 . σ2
Where,
n = Size of the sample
N = Size of the population
e = Acceptable error
σ = Population standard deviation
Z = Standard normal variate at a given
confidence level
After calculation, n = 75
The data were collected from the selected
respondents through personal interview using a
pre-designed and pre-tested interview schedule.
2.1. Measurement of the independent variables
The independent variables of the study was age,
education, family size, farm size, organizational
participation, extension contact, knowledge
about pine apple cultivation and attitude towards
pineapple cultivation. Age of the respondents
was measured in terms of years on the basis of
her response. A score of one was assigned for
each year of her age. Similarly 1 for each
number of child. A score of one (1) was given to
a respondent who has completed one year of
schooling. A score of zero (0) was assigned to an
illiterate respondent who cannot read and write at
all. A respondent who could sign his/ her name
Impact of pineapple cultivation
51

only, his/her educational qualification was
considered equal to one year of schooling and
was given a score of one. Family size included
all members of a household like husband, wife,
children and other members who are living
together in a family. Family size of a respondent
could be measured by assigning a score of one
(1) for each member of the family. Family farm
size was estimated on the basis of the cultivated
area either owned by a farmer or cultivated on
share cropping, the area being estimated in terms
of full benefit to the respondents. The total area
of land thus obtained was considered as the farm
size score of the respondent. Organizational
participation was measured by the membership
in different organizations and weights assigned
as 0 for no participation, 1 for ordinary member,
2 for executive member and 3 for officer like
president or secretary. Extension contact scores
of the respondents were computed on the basis of
their extension contact with different sources of
information. Respondents were asked whether
they contacted with those extension activities
never, rarely, occasionally and frequently.
Weights were assigned as 0 for never, 1 for
rarely, 2 for occasionally and 3 for frequently.
Thus a respondent’s extension contact was
obtained by adding the weights for his responses
to all the sources of information. To measure the
knowledge on pineapple cultivation, each
respondent was asked to answer some related
questions regarding pineapple cultivation. Score
2 was given for each correct answer, 1 was given
for each partially correct answer and 0 was given
for each incorrect answer. The summation of
obtained scores against all those questions
represented the knowledge score of any
respondent. The attitude of the respondents
towards pineapple cultivation was measured by
asking his opinion upon some attitudinal
statements. Score 5 was assigned to strongly
agree statements, while scores 4, 3, 2 and 1 was
assigned for agree, undecided, disagree and
strongly disagree statements respectively. In case
of negative attitudinal statement reverse score
was assigned to each response. The summation
of the obtained scores against those statements
represented the attitude score of any respondent.
2.2. Measurement of the dependent variable
The dependent variable of the study was
increased income from pineapple cultivation
from a unit area. Pineapple cultivators of the
study area earned some additional income other
than their main source of pineapple cultivation.
Increase income from various sources was
calculated here. Respondent’s income from
different sources were listed in the interview
schedule like increased return from lands,
income due to intercropping, income from
additional fruits other than pineapple, and
income from timber trees. As for example many
jackfruit trees are found in the study area and
farmers earned healthy return both from jackfruit
as well timber. Increased income from pineapple
cultivation was calculated by asking the
respondents about their income in thousand taka
from the above mentioned additional sources
other than pineapple. The summation of all the
sources in thousand taka represents the increased
income from pineapple cultivation of the
respondents.
3. Results and Discussion
3.1. Characteristics profile of the respondents
Characteristics profile of the farmers were
determined and presented in Table 1. It is
revealed that most (about 80%) of the
respondents were young to middle aged having
varying level of education with no illiteracy.
Majority (85%) of the farmers had small family
and the mean (4.79) value was smaller in
comparison with national average of Bangladesh
which was 4.9 (Anonymous, 2009). Table 1
reveals that majority (about 93%) of the farmers
had small to medium farm size and about 81% of
the farmers had medium extension contact. As
regards to organizational participation, about
93% had low to medium organizational
participation. All most all (about 90%) the
respondents had 61-80% knowledge regarding
modern techniques of pineapple cultivation and
they also maintained a favorable (84%) attitude
towards pineapple cultivation.
52 Hasan et al./The Agriculturists 8(2): 50-56 (2010)

Table 1. Socio demographic characteristics profile
Variables Measurement Categories Respondents
Number
Respondents
% Mean Standard
Deviation
Age Years Young (<35)
Middle (36-50)
Old (>50)
22
37
16
29.30
49.30
21.31 41.77 9.42
Education Rated score
Illiterate
Primary
Secondary
Above
secondary
0
41
21
13
0
54.7
28.0
17.3
7.36 4.58
Family Size Rated score Small (<5)
Medium (5-6)
Large (>6)
64
9
2
85.30
12.00
2.70 4.79 1.75
Farm Size Hectare
Marginal (>0.5)
Small (0.51-1.0)
Medium (1.01-
3)
Large (>3.0)
2
27
43
3
2.70
36.00
57.30
4.00
1.39 0.76
Organizational
participation Rated score Low (<2)
Medium (2-4)
High (>4)
21
49
5
28.00
65.30
6.70 2.96 0.85
Extension
contact Rated score Low (<4)
Medium (4-8)
High (>8)
1
61
13
1.30
81.30
17.40 6.97 1.59
Knowledge Selected
scale
Up to 60%
(<23)
61-70% (23-27)
71-80% (28-31)
>80% (>31)
2
28
40
5
2.70
37.30
53.30
6.70
27.79 2.25
Attitude Selected
scale
Highly
favorable (>60)
Favorable (50-
60)
Unfavorable
(<60)
7
63
5
9.30
84.00
6.70 54.88 3.56
Impact of pineapple cultivation
53

3.2. Increased income from pineapple
cultivation from unit area
The increased income of the respondents from
pineapple cultivation from unit area ranged from
43 to 200 thousand taka with an average being
146.72 thousand taka. The respondents were
classified into three categories according to
increased income i. e., low, medium and high
increased income from pineapple cultivation
(Table 2).
It is indicated from Table 2 that most of the
respondents of the study area belonged to high
(54.7%) increased income category followed by
medium (36%) and low (9.3%) increased income
category, respectively.
Pineapple growers of the study area earned a lot
of money by some additional fruits like jackfruit
(both fruits and timber were used). Intercropping
with pineapple is a common practice in
Bangladesh. Intercropping is the practice of
growing of two or more crops in the same
pineapple field at or about the same time. The
main purpose of intercropping is that the failure
of one component of intercropping will not affect
the performance of the crop components, and
yield advantage with economic benefit. In most
of the cases, aroids or kachu (Colocasia
esculenta) which was cultivated by cent percent
respondents, turmeric (Curcuma longa), ginger
(Zingiber officinale), jackfruit (Artocarpus
heterophyllus) etc are extensively cultivated as
intercrop with pineapple which is also a common
practice in the study area. Farmers earned a great
economic profit by intercropping of these crops
with pineapple. Current market price of various
items like fruits (Jackfruit), timber from mainly
jackfruit, aroids, zinger and turmeric etc are very
high valued. So the respondents in most of the
cases earned a lot of additional income from
these items besides pineapple.
3.3. Relationship between selected
characteristics of the respondents and their
increased income from pineapple
cultivation
To ascertain the relationship of respondents’
characteristics with increased income from
pineapple cultivation, correlation analysis was
used. Various relationships regarding the above
aspects were depicted in Table 3.
Table 2. Distribution of the respondents according to their increased income from pineapple cultivation
Category (000’ taka) No. Percentage Mean SD
Low (<75) 7 9.3
Medium (75-150) 27 36 146.72 45.04
High (<150) 41 54.7
Table 3. Relationship between selected characteristics and increased income from pineapple
cultivation of the respondents
Independent Variable Coefficient correlation value of ‘r’
Age 0.034
Education 0.306**
Family size -0.055
Farm size 0.352**
Organizational participation 0.153
Extension contact 0.114
Knowledge 0.233*
Attitude 0.199*
** Correlation is significant at 1% level
* Correlation is significant at 5% level
54 Hasan et al./The Agriculturists 8(2): 50-56 (2010)

Table 3 shows that education of the respondents
had positive and significant relationship with
their increased income from pineapple
cultivation. So it can be said that increased
income from pineapple cultivation of the
respondents depends on their education.
Education broadens one’s outlook on life and
helps to understand the social, political,
economic and cultural issues in the society. The
higher the educational attainment of an
individual, higher was his/her level of
understanding of any phenomenon. It is very
important to note that 100% respondents of the
study area were educated, considerable
proportion 45% had secondary to higher
secondary level of education. This literacy of the
respondents allowed them to have access to the
print media which helped them to cultivate the
high valued crops like pineapple. Haque et.al.,
(2004) and Alam (1998) also found similar
result.
The relationship between farm size and increased
income from pineapple cultivation was found to
be positive and significant r = 0.352**. It means
that higher the farm size, the higher the income
from pineapple cultivation. Mondol et.al., (2005)
also found similar result. The knowledge of the
respondents on pineapple cultivation was found
to have significant relationship (r = 0.233*) with
the increased income. This means that
knowledge on pineapple cultivation has a great
influence on increased income from pineapple
cultivation. The findings also indicated that the
higher the knowledge of the respondents on
pineapple cultivation the higher is the increased
income. Rahman (1995) also found similar
result. According to Table 3, the attitude of the
respondents showed a positive and significant
relationship with their increased income (r =
0.199*) from pineapple cultivation. This means
that attitude of the respondents towards
pineapple cultivation has a great influence on
their increased income.
Pineapple is mainly a crop of hilly areas in
Bangladesh. The concerned study area was also a
hilly area, where no other crops are extensively
and commercially grown. So, the respondents
cultivated mainly pineapple and developed their
positive knowledge and attitude towards
pineapple cultivation, which has a great impact
on their increased income. The findings also
confirmed that the more positive and favorable is
the knowledge and attitude the higher is the
increased income of the respondents.
4. Conclusions
Based on the above findings, it may be
concluded that intercropping of other crops with
pineapple plays a vital role for increasing income
of the respondents. Aroids, ginger, turmeric,
jackfruits etc are the widely used intercrops of
that area. For getting a healthy economic return
farmers should pay due attention for growing
these crops considering all recommended
practices.
Education, farm size, annual income, knowledge
and attitude towards pineapple cultivation were
positively correlated with the increased income
form unit area of pineapple cultivation of the
respondents of the study area. The change agents
should pay more attention to address these issues
properly for making the livelihood of pineapple
growers sustainable.
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