Yield gap in bitter gourd production: A perspective of farm-specific efficiency in Narsingdi district in Bangladesh

The concept of yield gaps arose from IRRI experiments undertaken in the 1970s. The yield gap in this study refers to the discrepancy between prospective farm yield and actual average farm yield. This study aims to find the yield gap by studying the efficiency, abiotic and biotic factors. Simple random sampling techniques were used to collect data, and a total of 72 respondents were interviewed for this purpose. The study revealed that 90.70%, 80.30%, and 73% of farmers were technical, allocative, and cost-efficient for bitter gourd production. The yield gap was 15, 245 kg/ha due to the non-transferable component of technology, whereas 3914 kg/ha was due to existing inefficiency at the farm level. Moreover, combined biotic and abiotic factors were responsible for the 19.91 percent yield loss, constituting a mean yield gap of 6598 kg/ha. Low price of bitter gourd, high labor wage rate, and high input price was the main socio-economic constrain for improving bitter gourd production where excessive rainfall, attack by insect and disease, lack of quality seed, and lack of proper utilization of irrigation facilities were identified as main biophysical constraints for bitter gourd production. Government intervention by providing training, maintaining an effective marketing system, and ensuring quality input can greatly remove the problem mentioned by farmers.