Jute Cultivation in India and Bangladesh: A Comparative Study

The present work attempt to analyse the feasibility to Jute production in India and Bangladesh-the two leading jute producing countriesof the world. Jute is popularly known as Golden fibre in Bangladesh. Since 1972-73, the monopoly of the two countries are being curbed by the increased production of natural fibres and synthetics by Brazil, Burma, Nepal, Thailland. The stability in theexport earnings of India and Bangladesh brought about by enchancing their price competitiveness, an analysis of profitability of jute and aus paddy, jute-aus cost ratio, jute aus price ratio and output-input rasico indicate a comparative advantage of jute in West Bengal (India) and that of aus in Bangladesh so, the problem of jute farmers of Bangladesh is more acute and will contribute to the instability in foreign exchange earnings of the country. Resource use efficiency analysis indicates that there is possibility of increasing the yield of jute and hence reducing the cost per unit in both the regions if input factors are judiciously allocated. Moreover, in none of the regions the coefficient for human labour use has been found to be significantly different from zero. The present work suggests that the development of jute economy of both the regions lies essentially in the successful action in four major fronts, namely productivity, quality, market promotion and alternative new uses. Joint and massive efforts are also necessary for improvement of market intelligence, coordination of marketing strategies and development of new end uses of raw jute. The effective measures in the desirable direction can be undertaken if both India and Bangladesh operate within the frame work of a well formulate multilateral programme with joint participation aided by international agencies such as FAO, UNIO and UNCTAD.