Improving aquaculture productivity, efficiency and profitability in Bangladesh: Does land ownership matter?

Abstract This study examines the impact of land tenure systems on aquaculture farm productivity, efficiency, and profitability based on information obtained from interviews with 517 randomly selected aquaculture farms across Bangladesh. Propensity score matching (PSM) is used to estimate productivity variation, and the stochastic frontier production function (SFPF) is employed to analyze efficiency variation depending on aquaculture farms’ land ownership. The results reveal that the productivity and efficiency of cash tenant farms are significantly higher than those of self-owned farms, but that the land-owner extracts most of the associated profits through the rent. Furthermore, the efficiency of self-owned farms decreases with farm size, while the opposite is true for cash tenant farms.