Supply Response in Bangladesh Agriculture
Sultan H. Rahman
Abstract
This paper presents, estimates of supply response parameters for major agricultural crops in Bangladesh. Though sufficiently large samples were not available for estimation from time series data, the importance of these estimates for agricultural policy analysis and planning makes the task worthwhile. Ordinary least squares techniques were used in each case to estimate the acreage and output supply elasticities. The rice crop has also been disaggregated into all its major components, e.g., Aman, Aus, Boro, etc. A large number of Rabi crops have also been investigated. Elasticity estimates for group commodities, e.g., foodgrain, vegetables spices, etc. have also been obtained. The ‘model’ supply functions yield good results in most cases and the estimated supply elasticities are comparable to those obtained for other developing countries.