Productivity and Economic Performance of Four Rice-based Cropping Sequences in Stabilized Charlands of Bangladesh

Abstract

Diversification of rice-based cropping sequences may increase the market value of annual production, but sequence-level evidence from stabilised riverine charlands remains limited. Four three-crop sequences were evaluated descriptively at Kalibarir char and Ujan Kashiar char in the Old Brahmaputra Floodplain of Bangladesh during 2023–2024: chili–bitter gourd–transplanted (T.) aman rice (CP2), sweet gourd–cucumber–T. aman rice (CP7), maize–okra–T. aman rice (CP9), and sweet potato–foxtail millet–T. aman rice (CP10). The field documentation indicates a randomised complete block design with three replications, although only site-level and pooled means were available for analysis. CP7 had the largest reported rice-equivalent yield (REY; 77.05 t ha⁻¹) and net return (BDT 1,072,474.50 ha⁻¹); CP10 had the highest reported benefit–cost ratio (3.22). Crop occupation totaled 325, 308, 331, and 318 days for CP2, CP7, CP9, and CP10, respectively. Dividing reported gross returns by the corresponding REY values implies reference rice prices ranging from BDT 23.83 to 37.03 kg⁻¹, but the crop-specific price records and valuation conventions required to explain these differences were unavailable. A Boro–fallow–T. aman system was used solely as a descriptive accounting benchmark. The numerical rankings represent provisional summaries of one cropping cycle rather than statistically established differences or verified economic advantages.