The Role of Marginal Farmers' Farming Enterprises in Ensuring Household Food Security

Abstract

The goal of this study was to ascertain how marginal farmers' farming operations impacted household food security. Additionally, efforts were undertaken to identify the challenges marginal farmers faced in attaining household food safety. Due to this, the study was carried out in three randomly chosen villages in the Rajbari district's Baliakandhi upazila. In these three communities, out of 500 marginal farmers, 26% of the populace was randomly selected. Data was acquired through direct interviews with marginal farmers between January 5 and February 20, 2009. The majority of marginal farmers (51%) fell into the medium group in terms of the contribution of farming enterprises to domestic food safety, while 37% fell into the low category. More over half of the family's food requirements were still unmet by the farming operations, which only met 40% of them annually. The biggest percentage of age (42%) of the four farming enterprise categories came from crops alone. Among the ten traits of the marginal peasants, the size of the farm and the yearly family income were positively connected, whereas the size of the family, the annual nutritional demands of the family, and cropping intensity practiced were negatively correlated. The remaining traits were not significantly correlated with how much farming operations contributed to household food security. Lack of suitable land for farming, poor training facilities, and ignorance of various facets of better farming enterprises were the main challenges marginal farmers faced in achieving household food security.