Scavenging Poultry for Poverty Alleviation: A review of experiences with a focus on Bangladesh

Report prepared for International Livestock Research Institute.Food Security and Poverty, Livestock Production/Industries,

Consumer preferences and demand for livestock products in urban Bangladesh

Also available in the ILRI Repository on Livestock Research at http://hdl.handle.net/10568/3009demand, quality, safety, livestock products, Bangladesh, Consumer/Household Economics, Livestock Production/Industries,

Consumer preferences and demand for livestock products in urban Bangladesh

Demand for animal products has been increasing rapidly in Bangladesh due to urbanization and increases in per capita income. There are rudimentary indications that demand for improved food quality and safety has also been increasing and that consumers were willing to pay higher prices for such attributes of products. However, there is little empirical evidence on the criteria and indicators of quality and safety that consumers use in their buying decisions, or that suppliers use in differentiating products to promote sales, or the extent to which consumers are willing to pay for such attributes. This study is the first attempt to comprehensively characterize and quantify Bangladeshi urban demand for animal products with a focus on quality and safety. Based on a multi-stage sample survey of 900 households from Dhaka and Mymensingh cities, successive analyses present statements of preference based on ratings, identified quality criteria, stated sources of supply and recent purchasing behaviour both at home and away from home, and econometric analysis of relationships between price ratings and quality ratings across attributes, so as to generate willingness to pay for those attributes. The findings show that officially defined grades and quality standards of livestock products are either absent or poorly defined and enforced. On the other hand, producers and consumers in the market use specific attributes or criteria and indicators to differentiate quality and safety of livestock products and they also charge and pay different prices based on those attributes. Although targeted at urban populations, considerable variation between locations in terms of the product preferences and attributes used to differentiate quality was identified. Establishment of standards and grades will become necessary to meet consumer demand on the one hand and facilitate producers and market agents to respond to consumer demand on the other. Whether smallholders will have any comparative advantage in supplying an expanding market requiring more homogenous and better quality and safer products need to be studied regularly along with studies on consumer demand because of the dynamic nature of the emerging and evolving market, the industry and the sector

Sustainable Agricultural Management Practices and Enterprise Development for Coping with Global Climate Change

This book chapter provides an insight into the synthesis of climate change vulnerabilities across various regions of the globe, recent trends, issues and prospects of climate smart agribusiness, the skill, efficiency and sustainable management practices of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) of the globe in the context of climate change, addressing the needs of emerging markets, industries and regional trades through a transformation with development in the areas of technology, value chains, management of environmental and social risk in the supply chains, compliance of food quality and safety regulations, market linkages of smallholders, corporate social responsibility and institutional development. There is a growing concern on food safety regulation and certification as part of sustainable management practices that firms and industries should cope. Sustainable management practices in business prove to be more profitable as they tend to adapt and grow with the changing markets, providing a competitive advantage over other firms. This chapter also focused on the challenges in sustainable business practices as well as suggested a number of development options, institutional and policy issues

From slash-and-burn to sustainability : a study from the Chittagong Hill tracts of Bangladesh

This policy brief is based on SANDEE working paper no. 24 -07, "Shifting cultivation and its alternatives In Bangladesh : productivity, risk and discount rates"In Bangladesh many rural hill communities are in trouble because their traditional ‘slash and burn’ agriculture is becoming increasingly unsustainable. Farmers in these communities have to farm more intensively and this is causing a whole host of environmental and social problems. This challenge is not limited to this region, but is being experienced by traditional farmers across the developing world. To help find a solution to this crucial problem, a new SANDEE study looks at the economic and social feasibility of replacing shifting cultivation in the hill district of Khagrachari with settled agriculture and new soil conservation techniques based around orchard growing

FARMERS' TECHNOLOGY, ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE AND RELATIVE ECONOMIC EFFICIENCY OF COUNTRY BEAN GROWERS

This paper examined farmers' country bean production technology and proposed an econometric model for estimating the normalized profit distribution function using a Three Staged Generalized Method of Moment procedure. The advantage of the model is that it used Cobb-Douglas form of profit function which is linear in logarithm. The second moment function of profit can be used for measuring risk involved in input use under uncertainty. Furthermore, the results could be used for testing relative economic efficiency of growers'. The empirical data on country bean production validated the model. The result showed that fertilizers and pesticides were risk increasing inputs in country bean production. The small farmers were found to be more efficient. The study concludes that under uncertain environmental condition, relative economic efficiency can be assessed through estimation of normalized profit distribution function

Consumer preferences and demand for livestock products in urban Bangladesh

Demand for animal products has been increasing rapidly in Bangladesh due to urbanization and increases in per capita income. There are rudimentary indications that demand for improved food quality and safety has also been increasing and that consumers were willing to pay higher prices for such attributes of products. However, there is little empirical evidence on the criteria and indicators of quality and safety that consumers use in their buying decisions, or that suppliers use in differentiating products to promote sales, or the extent to which consumers are willing to pay for such attributes. This study is the first attempt to comprehensively characterize and quantify Bangladeshi urban demand for animal products with a focus on quality and safety. Based on a multi-stage sample survey of 900 households from Dhaka and Mymensingh cities, successive analyses present statements of preference based on ratings, identified quality criteria, stated sources of supply and recent purchasing behaviour both at home and away from home, and econometric analysis of relationships between price ratings and quality ratings across attributes, so as to generate willingness to pay for those attributes. The findings show that officially defined grades and quality standards of livestock products are either absent or poorly defined and enforced. On the other hand, producers and consumers in the market use specific attributes or criteria and indicators to differentiate quality and safety of livestock products and they also charge and pay different prices based on those attributes. Although targeted at urban populations, considerable variation between locations in terms of the product preferences and attributes used to differentiate quality was identified. Establishment of standards and grades will become necessary to meet consumer demand on the one hand and facilitate producers and market agents to respond to consumer demand on the other. Whether smallholders will have any comparative advantage in supplying an expanding market requiring more homogenous and better quality and safer products need to be studied regularly along with studies on consumer demand because of the dynamic nature of the emerging and evolving market, the industry and the sector

Quality and Safety of Milk in Bangladesh: What do Consumers Believe in?

The paper attempts to analyze quality and safety attributes of milk for which consumers are willing to pay and make their decisions to purchase using the framework of conjoint analysis. The study also examines consumer’s level of preference concerning quality and safety attributes of milk in relation to their socio-economic factors. The data used for this analysis is collected from a consumer survey of 900 households conducted in April 2006 and a supplementary survey specifically designed for the conjoint study with a sub-sample of 380 households from the original 900 samples- 260 in Dhaka city and 120 in Mymensingh city of Bangladesh, conducted in 2008. Buyers of raw fresh milk appeared to be fairly indifferent about level of fat content, have marginally more preference for milk from local breeds rather than crossbreeds but have strong preference for milk in which water has not been added. Low price is also stronly preferred to high price, which is an indication that consumers do not associate high price with higher quality, given that several other attributes such as breed of the cow and adulteration are not easily verifiable at the point of purchase. Water addition is the most common form of adulteration of milk in the country. Consumers perceive that water addition has two potential negative effects on the quality of milk. First, addition of water may make the milk ‘impure’ or ‘unsafe’ if contaminated water is addeded, and it dilutes milk so fat content is reduced in water added milk. Therefore, preference for fat content is partly indirectly expressed through preference for milk without added water. There are other forms of adulteration such as adding powdered milk, chemicals to avoid spoilage but ordinary consumers can’t easily verify these at the time of purchase to make a choice. Buyers of pasteurized milk are also indifferent about fat content but have strong preference for milk in polypack rather than in paper cartoon and for low price. It was found that the consumers gave highest consideration on freshness of raw milk followed by taste and purity. In case of pasteurized milk, taste was the most important criteria, and fat content the least. It appeared from conjoint analysis that, other things being equal, the most preferred profile of raw fresh milk is ‘milk from local breed cow with low fat without water adulteration and at low price’ and the least preferred is ‘milk from a crossbred cow with low fat, added water and at high price’. In case of pasteurized milk, the most preferred profile is ‘full cream milk in polypack at low price’ and the least preferred profile is ‘low fat milk in paper cartoon at high price’. Among the selected attributes of raw fresh milk, other things being equal, an average buyer in his/her purchase decision give 31% weight on price, 28% on water adulteration, 22% on breed of the cow and 19% on fat content. In case of pasteurized milk, among the three selected attributes 49% of weight is given on price, 30% on packing and 21% on fat content. Regression analysis showed that fat content, cow breed, milk purity, milk price, religion, household expenditure per month and district dummy significantly affected product profile preference rating of raw milk. The result of this study could be used for designing safety and quality standard of milk for domestic market and gradually update those standards as new information on quality criteria and consumer preferences emerge from new research