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JAERD
Research Article
Lecturer, Department of Agricultural Finance and Cooperatives, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural
University, Gazipur-1706, Bangladesh.
2
Professor, Department of Agricultural Finance, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh-2202, Bangladesh.
3
M.S in Agricultural Finance, Department of Agricultural Finance, Bangladesh Agricultural University Mymensingh-2202,
Bangladesh.
This definite study was conducted based on the relationship of agro-ecosystem and the income
level to judge the risk in farming among the respondents in the study areas. The reason for the
study was to clarify the farmers about the risks and uncertainties in farming. Three Upazilas
namely Gouripur, Ishwarganj and Haluaghat from Mymensingh district were selected with a view
to analyzing the changes of biodiversity and its impact on income diversification. Several
indexes like Shannon, richness, evenness, dominance and income diversity index were
calculated for the plants, animals etc. to measure the changes among these species and its
contribution on income level. The study was conducted in 2014 and the mean income index was
found highest (2.15) in Ishwarganj which means the respondents were earning from more than
two sources that helped them to reduce risk in farming. Most of the respondents in Ishwarganj
were involved in tree plantation, animal rearing, vegetables cultivation or business that lead the
highest richness indexes (2.68) and (0.61) in plant and animal rearing than other two areas. The
dominance indexes were also found lowest (0.40) and (0.30) respectively that lead to the
diversification of enterprises.
INTRODUCTION
Biodiversity is an important regulator of agro-ecosystem
functions, not only in the strictly biological sense of
impact on production, but also in satisfying a variety of
needs of the farmer and society at large. Agro-ecosystem
managers, including farmers, can build upon, enhance
and manage the essential ecosystem services provided
by biodiversity in order to work towards sustainable
agricultural production. This can be achieved though
good farming practices which follow ecosystem-based
approaches designed to improve sustainability of
production systems (FAO, 2016). Risk and uncertainty
are ubiquitous in agriculture and have numerous sources:
the vagaries of weather, the unpredictable nature of
biological processes, the pronounced seasonality of
Hossain et al.
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A number of studies have been undertaken on agroecosystem and risk management. For precedent,
Pongsiri et al (2009) conducted a study on the
disturbance and changes of ecosystem and its impact on
human health and concluded that, any disturbance of an
ecosystem can induce genetic changes in disease
pathogens (e.g. change in pathogen virulence), changes
in the population dynamics of vector or host species
(abundance, diversity, composition and distribution),
changes in community (predation and competition) and
changes in structural diversity (complexity, fragmentation
and distribution of habitats and area species
relationship). A study conducted by (CBD, 2006; 2007)
on livelihood and biodiversity loss showed that, the
poorest people of those poor countries, who depend most
immediately upon local ecosystems for their livelihoods
are somehow responsible for the degradation of
biodiversity and will mostly affected by the consequence
of this biodiversity loss.
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
086
METHODOLOGY
The study was conducted in Mymensingh district which is
rich in biodiversity. Considering the objectives of the
study three Upazilas namely Gouripur, Ishwarganj and
Haluaghat were selected. Three villages from Gouripur
namely Dapunia, Yousufabad and Satuti, another four
villages from Ishwarganj namely Matikhola, Morichar
Char, Charalbil and Char Pubail and three villages Norail,
Sumonia Para, Hadisermor were selected from
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Indexes
Shannon Index
Richness Index
Evenness Index
Dominance Index
Gouripur
0.74
2.47
0.24
0.75
Ishwarganj
1.62
2.68
0.53
0.40
Haluaghat
1.15
2.67
0.37
0.60
Indexes
Shannon Index
Richness Index
Evenness Index
Dominance Index
Gouripur
1.24
0.58
0.89
0.34
Ishwarganj
1.29
0.61
0.93
0.30
Haluaghat
1.17
0.60
0.84
0.36
c = (n1/N) 2 . (4)
Where, c= index of dominance; n1= number of each
species; N= total number of individuals.
Income Diversity Indices
This is an important index for the calculation of the
livelihood typologies of the respondents in the study
areas. This index is mainly used because it is useful to
find out a summary statistic that captures both income
shares and in a single figure that can be compared
across sample groups. An index of diversity, as
commonly used in studies of biodiversity and also found
in portfolio analysis in financial economics, promises to
be useful in this regard.A number of different diversity
indices were tried out and initially on a set of hypothetical
data. Of these, it was considered after experimentation
that a measure proposed by Chang (1997) described
diversity best in terms of both the number of activities and
the distribution of total income between them. In addition
this index has appeal that it is relatively simple to
calculate, the formula for doing so being:
1
Sum of squares of proportional contributions tototal income
088
Location
Income indices
Standard deviation
Gouripur
1.88
0.63
Ishwarganj
2.15
0.64
Haluaghat
2.04
0.64
CONCLUSION
This comparative study was initiated to explore the
changes of biodiversity and its impact on the livelihood
and risk in the agriculture sector among the respondents
in the study areas. Biodiversity is an important concept,
which is the dynamic system of the nature where all types
of living components and beings interact, cooperate and
share living components with each other. If anyhow the
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