Land-use decisions of rice/fish farming in Northern Bangladesh: use of PROMETHEE analysis

Some influential variables that are import to farmers in Northern Bangladesh regarding land use decisions for farmlands, where such options are possible, were explored in this study. A multi-stage sampling procedure was followed to select the study area and the sampling unit. We selected four sub-districts in Mymensingh district, a suitable area in Bangladesh for freshwater fish farming: Mucktagachha, Trishal, Phulpur, and Bhaluka. The PROMETHEE (Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment Evaluations) method was used to remove the problem of simultaneously selecting all criteria for land use decision-making, hence revealing the effects of some important variables on decisions on land use made by farmers. PROMETHEE model gave equal preference to rice over fish farming after all criteria were considered simultaneously. Although fish farming total return was about 6 times higher than rice farming, farmers were more interested in rice farming because of three major influential criteria: it requires less labor, operates at lower costs, and has zero conversion cost associated with rice farming.