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Growth and Change

Vol. 46 No. 2 (June 2015), pp. 274291

DOI: 10.1111/grow.12082

Identification of Suitability of Sites for Microenterprises

for Value Chain Development: A Study in Gazipur
District, Bangladesh
SYEDA KHALEDA AND YUJI MURAYAMA
ABSTRACT In recent years, many commercial poultry farm microenterprises (MEs) have flourished in rural areas with
the help of an extensive microfinance program in Bangladesh. These poultry MEs are in a key position for the profitable
operation of other actors in the poultry subsector value chain. But not all these MEs are located in suitable places, which
results in poor input supply and marketing facilities for their products and thus cause higher costs and less profit. The
government, nongovernment organizations (NGOs) and donor agencies apply the same policy for providing support
services to all these poultry farmers, irrespective of their locations. Thus, this paper tries to explain the poultry value chain
in Gazipur District, where the concentration of poultry farms is highest, and to delineate suitable sites for poultry MEs
using the multicriteria evaluation technique within a Geographic Information System context, utilizing factors such as
flood-free land, and infrastructures related to the poultry business-enabling environment of the value chain. The delineation of suitable land areas for farms can help NGOs, as well as the government, to design interventions and appropriate
policy development for farmers in different locations, and thus help all farmers to increase their profit and sustainability.

angladeshs economy is primarily agricultural, with a poor industrial base. Consequently, the
incidence of unemployment and poverty is high. The creation of employment is a prerequisite
for poverty reduction. There is a growing potential for development of microenterprises (MEs),
especially agro-based MEs in rural areas, created through extensive collateral-free lending of
microcredit/microfinance by several nongovernment organizations (NGOs) throughout the country, to
the poor for small businesses, thus creating employment opportunities for the unskilled poor. The poor
do not have access to loans from formal banking institutions since they lack collateral.
In recent years, many commercial poultry farm MEs have been developed in rural areas in
Bangladesh, and have created employment for a significant number of the poor population. MEs play
a significant role in poverty alleviation. The poor entrepreneurs have developed these farms extensively, utilizing their inherited family-owned homestead land with the help of microfinance. These
poultry farms can be considered as the most important microenterprises in the poultry subsector and
are in a key position for the profitable operation of all the other actors in the whole value chain.
But not all of these small farmers are located in suitable places, which results in poor input supply
and marketing facilities for their products in most cases, and thus causes higher costs and lower rates

Syeda Khaleda is a research fellow for Division of Spatial Information Science, Graduate School of Life and Environmental
Science, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan. Her e-mail address is: syedakhaleda@yahoo.com. Yuji Murayama is a
professor for Division of Spatial Information Science, Graduate School of Life and Environmental Science, University of
Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan. His e-mail address is: mura@geoenv.tsukuba.ac.jp. The authors are grateful to Professor Kazutoshi
Abe of Aichi University of Education, Japan, for his valuable comments. The authors are thankful to the editors of the journal
and anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments on earlier draft of this article and to their colleagues in the University
of Tsukuba, especially Dr. Ko Ko Lwin and Ronald Estoque. The authors extend their appreciation to the Japan Society for
Promotion of Science for awarding the fellowship that made undertaking the research possible.

Submitted January 2012; revised June 2012; accepted July 2012.

2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc

SUITABILITY OF SITES FOR MICROENTERPRISES DEVELOPMENT

275

of profit. Government, NGOs, and donor agencies apply the same policy for providing support
services to all these poultry farmers, irrespective of their location. The primary objective of this study
is to delineate the suitability of sites (or sites lack of suitability) for poultry MEs development with
respect to factors such as flood-free land and infrastructures related to the poultry business-enabling
environment of the value chain in Gazipur district (Figure 1), a 1,741.53 square km area, where the
concentration of poultry farms is highest in the country, using a multicriteria evaluation (MCE)
technique within a Geographic Information System (GIS) context. Consequently, this paper identifies the poultry value chain and constraints related mainly to the infrastructure in Gazipur district, to
facilitate design intervention to help farmers in these potential or unfavorable areas increase their
profit and be sustainable. Farmers in highly suitable areas require minimum effort and investment in
order to develop poultry farms/microenterprises. In an area delineated as suitable, modest effort and
investment are required, while if an area is marginally suitable, significant intervention may be

FIGURE 1. THE STUDY SITE: GAZIPUR DISTRICT, BANGLADESH.

Source: GIS Section, Banglapedia, Asiatic Society of Bangladesh.

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GROWTH AND CHANGE, JUNE 2015

required. If the suitability level is worse, the effort or cost, or both, are too great to be worthwhile for
poultry farming. The identification of feasible locations will encourage the establishment of poultry
MEs, and induce NGOs to provide adequate funding for these MEs for their further expansion, as
well as arranging the required infrastructures and support services, such as a flexible lending policy,
providing vaccines/medicines, facilitating quality input supply, and marketing, especially for MEs
located in vulnerable areas. Thus, the identification of suitable land areas for farms will help
enterprise development service providers to decide on proper demand-driven support to
microentrepreneurs in different locations, and thus help farmers in the district have better access to
facilities and support services. This will reduce their production and marketing costs and increase
their profit, allowing them to expand their businesses and create more employment opportunities for
the poor. Thus, delineation of potential sites will contribute to the development of the poultry
subsector and maintain sustainable development.

Previous Studies
Use of MCE and GIS in small farming activities. MCE has received much attention within the
context of GIS-based decision making (Pereira and Duckstein 1993). Multicriteria decision making
can be understood as a world of concepts, approaches, models, and methods that aid an evaluation
(expressed by weights, values, or intensities of preference) according to several criteria (Barredo
1996). The aim of the MCE technique is to investigate a number of choice possibilities in the light
of multiple criteria and conflicting objectives (Voogd 1983).
The integration of multicriteria methods and GIS provides a tool with great potential for obtaining
land suitability maps, or for selecting sites for a particular activity (Eastman et al. 1995; Jun 2000;
Mendoza 1997). While GIS provides an appropriate framework for the application of MCE methods,
which are not capable of managing spatial data, the MCE procedures add to GIS the means of
performing trade-offs on conflicting objectives, while taking into account multiple criteria and the
knowledge of the decision maker (Carver 1991).
Numerous studies on site suitability related to different small farming activities that cover small
and large geographic areas have been completed using MCE method and GIS technology. These
include continental level of assessment of aquaculture for Africa (Kapetsky 1994); strategic reassessment of fish farming potential in Africa (Aguilar and Nath 1998); regional level assessment for
oat farming in Mexico (Ceballos-Silva and Lpez-Blanco 2003); peri-urban agriculture in Vietnam
(Thapa and Murayama 2008); and urban aquaculture development in Bangladesh (Hossain et al.
2009). These papers present the result of the application of GIS and the MCE method to assess land
suitability for different agricultural activities.
Definition of microfinance and microenterprise (ME). The term microfinance is often used
interchangeably with microcredit. Microfinance encompasses financial services of any sort, provided in very small (micro) amounts (World Bank 2006). The term microfinance refers to the
provision of financial services to low-income clients. However, some organizations/microfinance
institutions (MFIs) also provide enterprise development services, such as production training, and
marketing, and technology services, as well as subsector analysis and intervention. The Grameen
Bank solidarity lending model is one of the well-known microfinance approaches developed to serve
landless poor people in any income generating activity, and is widespread in Asia. In microfinance,
several groups are formed, who attend weekly meetings at a place near their home. Credit is provided
to individuals within the group usually for 1 year, and payments are made weekly (Ledgerwood
2000). A microenterprise loan, which is provided in larger amounts to progressive microcredit

SUITABILITY OF SITES FOR MICROENTERPRISES DEVELOPMENT

277

borrowers for any microenterprise development, is considered to be an important addition to the

range of microfinance services.
There is no universally accepted definition of microenterprise. Generally, MEs are defined in
terms of workers employed. Microenterprise refers to a small business or activity that is owned
independently, operates with small investment, and has great opportunity for further expansion and
creation of employment (Khaleda 2007). In Indonesia, most enterprises are small microenterprises
that employ 019 employees, and these small enterprises make up about 99.8 percent of the total
establishment and contribute 43 percent of gross domestic product and 22 percent of total investment
(Brata 2007).
The concept of the value chain. There are several definitions of value chains and value chain
approaches. The value chain concept was first expressed by Michael Porter in 1985 in his book
Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance. According to Porter, the
value chain is a tool to disaggregate buyers, suppliers, and a farm into discrete but interrelated
activities from which value stems, and competitive advantage grows basically out of the value a farm
is able to create for its buyers that exceeds the farms cost for creating it. A United States Agency for
International Development (2006) briefing paper on The value chain framework describes business
and an enabling environment as one of five basic elements in the value chain, which includes all the
farms in the chain.
According to Haggblade and Gasmer (1991), a subsector is defined by its final product, and
includes all farms engaged in the supply of raw materials, production, and distribution of the
products. Rhyne and Holt (1994) mention that the subsector approach aims to identify both the
growing portion of subsector markets and the barriers that must be overcome if microenterprises are
to gain access to those growth markets. Typical areas of intervention include technology development, skill training, collective marketing, or purchase of inputs. Ledgerwood (2000) mentions that
subsector analysis involves the provision of financial and nonfinancial services, and the institutions
that identify subsector analysis as a means of intervention need to consider common constraints at
the subsector level that include space for the markets physical infrastructure, such as warehousing;
transport availability, reliability, and cost; and availability of input regularly.
Coe, Kelly, and Yeung (2007) mention that geography or territoriality is an important dimension
to all commodity chains. According to them, this territoriality reveals the unequal geographical
distribution of value, and associated economic development benefits, between different nodes along
the chain. Creation of value is essential to economic development, and uneven development is a
reflection of a relative lack of physical or organizational resources to be used to create the value by
the person, household, or community that created it.
All the different activities or processes that a product or service passes through until it reaches the
final consumer offer the possibility to include microenterprises in regional or global value chains,
and thus the chance to lift the poor out of poverty. The value chain approach enables NGOs, as well
as government organizations, to identify constraints in the value chains competitiveness, and to
design interventions, thus providing the potential for developing appropriate policies that may
enhance competitiveness. Consequently, it may serve as an input to government strategies (DIBD
2009).

Poultry production MEs and the value chain in Gazipur

In Bangladesh, poultry mainly encompasses chickens, and different production systems are
undertaken for chicken, such as commercial and backyard poultry production. This research deals

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GROWTH AND CHANGE, JUNE 2015

with the commercial chicken (broiler or layer) farm Mes, which are funded under microfinance
programs by NGOs. The authors conducted a sample survey of 166 MEs between December 2010
and February 2011 to collect some basic information, and a sample survey using a structured
questionnaire of 48 entrepreneur farmers from the 166 MEs to collect information on poultry
production. The questionnaire involved asking about their level of education, the amount of assets,
the main source of their income, the amount of land used for poultry farming, sources and distances
of input materials and support services, the type and amount of support services, places to market the
products, means of transport used for input materials and produced materials, the selling price of
eggs and chicken, and the problems they face.
The value chain for poultry consists of various actors including producers, transformers, or
suppliers of the product, and traders who commercialize, i.e., connect the final product with the
market. The value chain involves several activities such as breeding, feed production, input supply,
poultry production, collection and trade, slaughter, processing, final sale, and consumption. The
slaughter and processing of poultry are not very industrialized in Bangladesh. There remain several
MEs involved in these different activities in the chain, but this paper describes the poultry
production-oriented MEs in the value chain and examines their relationships with other actors in the
chain. By strengthening one actor in a value chain, it is possible to create competitive advantages for
the whole system and many people competing in local, regional, or global markets can benefit from
these advantages (DIBD 2009).
In Gazipur, the microentrepreneurs collect day-old chicks from the agents of well-known hatcheries
of the country, which are located in the nearest growth centers/markets within the district. The
microentrepreneurs sell eggs almost every day to the agents of the wholesalers from Dhaka city,
situated in Dhaka district, which is about 37 km away from Gazipur district. The agents of the
wholesalers from Dhaka collect the eggs and chickens from the farm gate when their pick-up vans can
reach them and take the eggs and chickens to Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh. However, in the
case of some farms located far from the wide paved roads, the entrepreneurs themselves have to take
the eggs to the pick-up vans using small nonmotorized rickshaw vans (light vehicles). Sometimes,
the agents of the wholesalers buy the eggs from middlemen in Gazipur district who store eggs
collected over several days, directly from the doors of the entrepreneurs (Khaleda 2013). The
microentrepreneurs are paid at the rate that is fixed by the society of egg and chicken wholesalers in
Dhaka. The price fixed by the society sometimes differs from the price the entrepreneurs get,
depending on different factors, such as the proximity of the farm to easily accessible roads, the quantity
of eggs (bigger farms get a better price), the size of the eggs, and whether the entrepreneur takes an
advance payment from the egg wholesaler in Dhaka, as they remain bound to sell eggs according to the
verbal contract with the agents. During the survey, only a few respondents reported that they sell the
birds, by their own arrangements, to the nearest markets at the growth centers in Gazipur.
Figure 2 provides a graphic representation of the structural elements of the poultry value chain in
Gazipur district. The financing and other support services of the government, the PKSF (Palli
Karma-Sahayak Foundation) and NGOs are reflected on the left-hand side of the chain. Poultry
farmers buy vaccines and medicines from agents of several medicine companies that are available in
rural markets and big markets at growth centers. A few entrepreneurs collect vaccines and medicines
at a cheap rate that are distributed by the upazila (subdistrict) livestock government office. The
farmers have to go to the chambers of government veterinary surgeons available generally at the
market near the government livestock office for information about poultry farming and prevention of
poultry disease. For farmers who are located far away from the government office, it is difficult to
find a reliable person for any counseling or vaccination of the birds.

SUITABILITY OF SITES FOR MICROENTERPRISES DEVELOPMENT

NGOs
Support Services:
Microcredit, Vaccine
Medicine, Training

Consumers/ Urban
Market

Consumers/ Rural Market

Urban Retailers
(Capital City)

Rural Retailers

279

Wholesalers

PKSF
Support Services: Loan,
NGO/MFI Staff Training

Government/
International
donor agency
Financial Provider

Middlemen
Commission Agent

Producers
Eggs/ Live Birds
Local Government
Microcredit,
Vaccine Medicine,
Training Provider

Input Suppliers
Chicks, Feed, Medicines

FIGURE 2. POULTRY VALUE CHAIN IN GAZIPUR DISTRICT.

Source: Khaleda (2013).
Note: PKSF (Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation) is an apex funding agency for microfinance and
poverty reduction established by the government of Bangladesh.
The microentrepreneurs prefer to buy poultry feed from the local rural markets, especially if the
agents of the well-known mills that produce poultry feed with balanced nutrients are available there.
As they need to buy feed almost every other day, it is difficult and expensive for them to go very
frequently to large distant markets for quality feed. The field survey reveals that most of the
entrepreneurs buy their feed from nearby rural markets about 0.5 to 2.5 km from their farms, even
though, in some cases, the availability of feed with balanced nutrients are not always certain at these
rural markets. The entrepreneurs normally have to carry the 50-kg bags of poultry feed by rickshaw
vans (nonmotorized light vehicles) from these rural markets to their farms (Khaleda 2013).
The distance of the source of input from the farm can be considered as a great hindrance to the
rapid development of the subsector in Bangladesh, as most of the roads in rural areas are un-paved
or semi-paved, and many farms are situated away from paved roads. As such, they have to rely on
traditional nonmotorized vehicles/rickshaw vans to carry the inputs from the rural markets over the
unpaved or semi-paved roads. Not only does this make the cost of input materials higher, but it makes
it difficult for the agents (buyers) to reach the farms with their big trucks to collect eggs and poultry
birds. As a result, entrepreneurs who are far from paved roads have to sell their produce at a much
lower price, and are thus unable to make maximum profit.
Along with their own equity, the microentrepreneurs use considerable amounts borrowed as
microenterprise loans, if they are members of an NGO microfinance program group in their locality.
The survey reveals that out of 166 poultry farms, more than half utilized an ME loan from an NGO
that was less than 20 percent of their total investment. Microfinance involves a collateral-free loan
program for poor farmers. Very few farmers are fortunate enough to receive government financial
support. Many farmers have no formal training, but the survey findings reveal that 45 percent
received formal training from government training institutions, NGOs, etc (Khaleda 2013).

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The above description of the value chain, and the associated constraints of its infrastructurerelated environment, reveals that all poultry producers are not in suitable position, and thus are likely
to add less value, be less profitable or incur loss. So, it is necessary to identify the farmers in different
locations, with different level of suitability, and thus different kinds of demands for facilities and
support. In particular, farmers in unfavorable locations need greater intervention to make them better
off. This identification would not only benefit the farmers, but would also help the government,
NGOs to best use their limited resources.
The following section involves mainly the procedures for examining how well different sites
satisfy the criteria for poultry farming, and for creating the GIS-based model, and the final poultry
MEs suitability map that quantifies the potential through the identification of suitable sites (or sites
lack of suitability), combining several criteria according to their relative importance to the poultry
farm development and operation using the MCE technique.

Methodology
Identification of criteria for potential development of poultry MEs. In order to determine the
potential sites for poultry farm MEs, the most important criteria were identified based on interviews
and the literature review. These are mainly the infrastructures required for the poultry subsector
development and the physical environment of Gazipur district, such as 1) spatial economic criteria
such as highways and roads, location of marketplaces, sources of support services; 2) physical
factors such as land and flooding; and 3) constraints such as rivers and water bodies, and the location
of forests. Neumann et al. (2009) mentioned that the occurrence of poultry can be explained by the
historic development of poultry farming and associated infrastructure and market conditions in the
region.
A good transportation and communication system is a prerequisite for poultry business development, including activities such as chick collection, feed collection, transportation of poultry produce,
etc. Therefore, poultry farming sites should be located with consideration of their proximity to
accessible roads, mainly to allow access by large delivery trucks. Paved roads and highways were
considered in the analysis, using data collected from the Local Government Engineering Department
(LGED).
The marketplace is one of the basic infrastructures for poultry farming development. Poultry
farmers buy feed, chicks, and medicines from the agents and dealers of large well-known feed
industries, hatcheries, and medicine companies, which sell their products in shops located mainly in
the large markets in Gazipur. Feed is a major input for poultry production and accounts for about 70
percent of the cost of production (Ravindran 2010), and farmers in Gazipur were found to buy feed
almost every other day. So, poultry farming site selection should consider proximity to feed,
medicine, and chick supply shops/markets. Digital data on marketplaces, collected from the LGED,
were considered. On the one hand, Dhaka can be considered as the only market to sell the poultry and
eggs produced by microenterprises of Gazipur. On the other hand, these small farms are the main
source, which make up about 70 to 80 percent of the poultry in the wholesale market of Dhaka.
Sources of support services, such as credit, vaccines/medicines, and training, are some of the most
important factors for the poultry business. Local government livestock offices and several NGOs are
the most available sources of these support services. Upazila livestock officers and veterinary
surgeons are posted to the local government livestock offices in every upazila/subdistrict. Besides
this, upazila livestock officers and veterinary surgeons sit in private chambers at marketplaces,
generally near the government offices, and farmers usually prefer to go to the chambers of these

SUITABILITY OF SITES FOR MICROENTERPRISES DEVELOPMENT

281

veterinary surgeons for counseling on the prevention of poultry diseases and for vaccination. Thus,
veterinary personnel play a very important role in poultry disease control. Veterinary field assistants
and livestock technical assistants provide government support services at a subsidized rate to the
farmers. The physical distance from these facilities was also considered when determining the
potential sites for poultry farming MEs. The spatial distribution data on local government offices was
used for the analysis. Many NGOs and their branches work extensively to provide support services
throughout the country, as well as in the study area. According to the 2007 State of the Microcredit
Summit Campaign Report, Bangladesh is having a profound impact on many of the socio-economic
dimensions of poverty, and has the worlds densest network of NGOs (Daley-Harris 2007), of which,
in Bangladesh, Dhaka division (of which Gazipur is one district) has the densest network. These
NGOs deliver most of the support services to the doorsteps of the poor entrepreneurs, organizing
group meetings every week in their locality at a place near their home, usually at the group leaders
home. Survey findings reveal that most of the microentrepreneurs poultry farms are situated within
a distance of 1 to 3 km from the NGOs. Therefore, the spatial distribution of the NGOs was not
considered in the GIS-assisted suitable site analysis.
Poultry farms are affected by flooding. About 30 to 35 percent of the land area of Bangladesh is
flooded every year (Milliman, Broadus, and Frank 1989), and roads are damaged, disrupting the
farms routine activities. The farmers either need to construct their farms on land that is free from
flooding or construct the poultry houses on high ground if the farms are built in low-lying areas, but
this type of construction involves extra costs. Therefore, land free from flooding is considered to be
highly suitable. A map of the flooding situation that shows land areas with the depth of flood water,
with average recurrence interval of 100 years, was considered in the analysis, collected from the
Center for Environment and Geographic Information System.
Criteria score classification and standardization. Site suitability for poultry farm MEs requires
the analysis of the critical factors for its success and sustainability. Poultry MEs location planning
should be based on a comprehensive analysis of infrastructure conditions within a framework that
can incorporate the spatial dimension of the environmental parameters that affect its sustainability.
This is necessary to produce a framework to guide decision makers in allocating scarce resources.
Thus, to identify suitability of sites for poultry farm Mes development, the basic infrastructure of
the business-enabling environment of the poultry value chain along with the physical factors were
considered as important criteria for analysis. Each factor was classified into four categories and given
a physical score from 1 to 4 (Table 1). The scoring levels (4 to 1) were highly suitable (VS), suitable
(S), marginally suitable (MS), unsuitable (US). This classification was used to standardize the
different scales upon which the raw data were measured. For each factor, ranges of data that pertain
to a desired level of suitability were selected. The selection of ranges involved the interpretation of
the data selected, and this interpretation was based primarily on interviews with the entrepreneurs,
the opinions of livestock experts, and literature research. Thus, four factors, namely proximity to
market, proximity to government office, proximity to roads (roads and highways), landform, and
flooding during peak rainfall period, and constraints such as rivers, water bodies, and forest areas
where poultry farming is not possible, were selected to determine the suitability of locations for
poultry farms. Constraints were assigned a score of zero. In all the factor maps, the constraint image
was incorporated to exclude areas from consideration.
The questionnaire survey on poultry MEs reveals that most of the entrepreneurs buy their feed
travelling between 0.5 and 2.5 km from their farms, and to collect quality chicks from the market
many of them travel up to 4 km. These findings are reflected in the selection of ranges in Table 1. As
no previous study was found to have been done on suitable site selection for poultry MEs develop-

Proximity to market (m)

Proximity to govt. office (m)
Proximity to national highways (m)
Proximity to roads (m)
Landform and flooding during
peak rainfall period (cm deep)

Constraints

1.
2.
3. a.
b.
4.

Factors

Categories of criteria (Factors and constraints)

2,0002,500
3,0004,000
2,0002,500
7501,000
Low land
(90180)

Marginally suitable

Class 2

Rivers, water bodies, and forest areas

1,5002,000
2,0003,000
1,5002,000
500750
Medium high
land (3090)

Suitable

Highly suitable
1,0001,500
1,0002,000
1,0001,500
250500
High land to
medium high land
(less than 30)

Class 3

Class 4

TABLE 1. CLASSIFICATION OF CRITERIA FOR POULTRY MICROENTERPRISES AND VALUE CHAIN DEVELOPMENT.

01,000; 2,500 and above

01,000; 4,000 and above
01,000; 2,500 and above
0250; 1,000 and above
Very low land
(180300)

Unsuitable (currently)

Class 1

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283

ment, using MCE and GIS, the classification or selection of ranges of some factors used several
documents related to poultry farming and papers on other agricultural activities. The Environment
Protection Authority (1998) recommends a 1,000-m buffer zone from an urban residential area and
the national highway, and a 250-m distance from public roads to be unsuitable for the establishment
of poultry farms. In Gazipur, government offices/upazila headquarters are located mainly in urban
areas (BBS 2001), and markets/growth centers contain urban settlement and infrastructures, where
the value of land is extremely high (Khan and Akther 2000), so in the classification of these two
factors, a 1,000-m distance was considered unsuitable. Salam, Khatun, and Ali (2004), consider up
to a 2,000-m distance from road to be suitable, and more than 4,000 m as unsuitable and Hossain
et al. (2009) consider more than 1,000-m distance from road to be unsuitable, and up to a 2,000-m
distance from market to be suitable, and more than 4,000-m distance from the source of inputs as
unsuitable for one of the most perishable products of fish farming. So, the above guidelines are
reflected with some modifications in the present classification of the factors for suitable area
selection, for poultry ME development.
MCE and weighting procedure. Suitability of sites for poultry MEs can be determined by the
evaluation of the criteria related to infrastructures and physical environmental elements. The MCE
method is used to find solutions to decision-making problems characterized by multiple alternatives,
which can be evaluated by means of decision criteria (Jankowski, Andrienko, and Andrienko 2001).
The basic starting point of MCE analysis is the construction of an evaluation matrix and the
pair-wise comparison matrix developed by Saaty (1977, 1990) was used. It is known as the analytical hierarchy process (AHP), although a variety of weighting techniques exist to determine the
weights for the factors in a MCE. The comparisons in AHP concern the relative importance of two
criteria involved in determining suitability. The AHP analysis produces a set of weights that sum
to 1. The MCE method was applied in combining spatial data describing the causing factors. The
factors and their weights are used as inputs for MCE by weighted linear combination (WLC). The
relative importance of a pair of factors is scored on a 17-point scale (Saaty Rating Scale) from the
least important (1/9, 1/8, . . . 1/2) to the most important (1,2, . . . 9), as in Table 2. If a pair of
factors is considered to be equally important to the evaluation of the suitability of a site, then a
score of 1 is provided. Thus the weight for each factor is derived and used in MCE, to show the
sites suitability for poultry MEs.
Completion of pair-wise comparison matrix. The development of weights for the factors is
based on a pair-wise comparison matrix. Nine pair-wise comparison matrices were developed for the
author, and eight other livestock experts. Weights assigned by the experts for the factors of poultry
MEs are summarized in Table 3. The table indicates that there is a general agreement among the
majority of experts about the most important factor that was assigned the highest average weight for
high/low flooding land, for the evaluation of sites for poultry MEs.
In the final step in AHP, it is necessary to know whether the pair-wise comparison has been
consistent, in order to accept the result of weighting. The measurement of the consistency ratio (CR)
is a way to examine the consistency of entries in a pair-wise comparison matrix. Saaty (1977, 1990)
recommends that a value of CR equal to or less than 0.10 indicates that the pair-wise judgment is
sufficiently consistent. The CR of 0.02 to 0.08 (mean 0.06), in Table 3, are well within the ratio of
equal to or less than 0.10, and thus indicate that the comparisons of criteria are perfectly consistent,
and the relative weights are acceptable for use in suitability analysis.
A WLC was used to overlay the four (factors) maps results, i.e., market proximity, road proximity
(combining roads and highways proximity maps), proximity to government offices, and flooding
situation suitability maps (Figure 3), with the integration of the AHP result (weight) to derive the

1/8

Extremely

1/9

1/6

1/5

1/4

Very strongly
Strongly
Less important

1/7

1/2

Moderately

1/3

TABLE 2. THE RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF TWO CRITERIA.

Equally
Important

Moderately

Strongly
Very strongly
More important

9
Extremely

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285

TABLE 3. RELATIVE WEIGHTING OF FOUR FACTORS FOR POULTRY MICROENTERPRISE ACCORDING TO

NINE EXPERTS BASED ON PAIR-WISE COMPARISON MATRIX.
Expert

High/low
flooding
land

Proximity
to road

Proximity to
government
office

Proximity
to market

Sum

Consistency
ratio (CR)

A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
Mean

0.566
0.421
0.050
0.335
0.559
0.530
0.533
0.530
0.449
0.442

0.250
0.421
0.557
0.460
0.260
0.315
0.273
0.315
0.364
0.357

0.138
0.106
0.094
0.133
0.066
0.105
0.067
0.105
0.128
0.105

0.046
0.051
0.300
0.073
0.115
0.050
0.127
0.050
0.059
0.097

1.000
1.000
1.000
1.000
1.000
1.000
1.000
1.000
1.000
1.000

0.06
0.02
0.07
0.06
0.08
0.08
0.07
0.08
0.02
0.06

A = author, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I = livestock experts, having more than 10 years experience in

livestock-related research and work as director/livestock officer at Directorate of Livestock Services
(DLS), Bangladesh, and as project director/coordinator of different international donor (such as
DFID, Department for International Development; IFAD, International Fund for Agricultural Development; and ADB, Asian Development Bank) supported projects (such as PROSPER; MFTSP,
Microfinance and Technical Support Project; and PLDP, Participatory Livestock Development
Project) in Bangladesh.
final suitability map (Figure 4). The final suitability map was reclassified into five classes, including
constraint data, using the equal interval method with the qualitative description of highly suitable,
suitable, marginally suitable, unsuitable, and constraint areas for poultry MEs.

Result of Suitability Analysis

The final poultry MEs suitability model/map is classified into the following categories: highly
suitable, suitable, marginally suitable, unsuitable, and constraint areas. The model shows that a
considerable area is considered to be highly suitable (212 square km, 12 percent) and a relatively
large area is considered to be suitable (899 square kilometers, 50 percent) in Gazipur district, while
a relatively small percentage of area is marginally suitable (356 square km, 20 percent) and
unsuitable (137 square km, 8 percent) for poultry MEs development (Figure 4).
The unions, which are the ultimate tier of administration, namely Kaoraid, Gazipur, Shingasree,
Barishaba, Durgapur, Gazipur sadar, Prahladpur, Barmi, Kapasia, and Mouchak have extensive areas
that are classified as suitable for poultry MEs (about 80 percent of the area of those unions), which
have suitable infrastructural potential with regard to proximity to roads and highways, proximity
to government livestock offices and markets, and land free from regular flooding. The
microentrepreneurs in these areas have easy access to marketplaces for buying input material, and
have easier access to support services.
Unsuitable/marginally suitable sites are distributed to a great extent in Baktapur, Kaligonj,
Bahadurshadi, Tumlia, Jamalpur, Jangalia, Moktapur, Kashimpur, Sanmania, Konabari, Dhaljora,

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GROWTH AND CHANGE, JUNE 2015

FIGURE 3. FACTOR MAPS FOR POULTRY MICROENTERPRISES SHOWING AREAS WITH SUITABILITY
LEVELS.

and Sutrapur unions, and unsuitable sites occur in 41, 16, 28, 22, 27, 45, 20, 8, 18, 17, 25, and 24
percent of the areas of those unions, respectively. These areas are located in the south eastern part of
Kaligonj and Kapasia upazila/subdistrict and in the south western part of Kaliakoir subdistrict
(Figure 1). They are considered unsuitable or marginally suitable as they are low lying, and prone to
extensive flooding during the rainy season almost every year (Figure 3A). Moreover, they are away
from good communication systems, especially from the national and regional highways (Figure 3B).
For this reason, though the areas have the facility of a nearby government office in Kaligonj and
Kaliakoir subdistrict, and are considered as suitable with regard to this proximity factor (Figure 3D),

SUITABILITY OF SITES FOR MICROENTERPRISES DEVELOPMENT

287

FIGURE 4. FINAL MAP SHOWING SUITABILITY OF SITES FOR POULTRY MICROENTERPRISES IN

GAZIPUR.

this factor is not persuasive in delineating the surrounding areas such as Baktapur, Tumlia,
Bahadurshadi as suitable for poultry when deciding the final suitability model. A considerable
portion of other unions of other upazilas are defined as unsuitable/marginally suitable, mentionable
among them are Ghagotia, Toke, Rajbari, Karihata, Basan, Gaccha, Pubail, Telihati, Chandpur,
Nagari, and Tongi.

Discussion and Recommendations

In developing countries, small farms face constraints related to market access,
poor infrastructure, poor access to finance and high costs of capital, and dilapidated technology.
Several studies have mentioned how these factors restrict the competitiveness of the farms, making
it very difficult to become competitive, and demonstrating that upgrading value chains accelerates
economic growth and job creation (DIBD 2009). The profitability in commercial poultry production
depends not only on efficient production, but also on the successful marketing of the product. The
farmer should consider the marketability of production, to ensure a reasonable profit margin by
choosing a proper location for the farm. Production techniques include proper planning in choosing
the location, proper design of poultry houses, arranging for quality inputs such as chicks and feed,
adopting appropriate rearing techniques, and taking adequate disease-control measures, to ensure
high efficiency and productivity (Prabakaran 2003). Wittlinger and Tuesta (2006) note that farmers
require specific conditions for a successful outcome, such as the existence of a strong value chain,
and favorable geographic, climate, and price conditions.
Roduner (2007) argues that globalization brings regional and international competition into local
markets by patching up market gaps and bringing producers and consumers closer together. Any
agricultural produce brought into the market, local, or international competes with similar products
in the market coming from different places. Thus, all farmers offering their produce for sale instantly

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GROWTH AND CHANGE, JUNE 2015

become part of a value chain. However, not all these farmers remain in an equally favorable business
environment and as such they should not benefit equally. For this reason, farmers require support to
be competitive by maximizing their profitability or increasing their bargaining power in the value
chain, and therefore government and NGO intervention is needed.
The present study identified the suitability of areas for poultry microenterprises development in
Gazipur, through the MCE technique within a GIS context. The estimation was influenced by
factors such as flood-free land, and infrastructures related to the poultry business, enabling the
value chain environment. Some more factors could be evaluated, physical or socio-economic, if
deemed necessary, such as slope, availability of labor, etc. As Gazipur is mostly flat with low
gradients, slope was not considered. No problem exists regarding the availability of labor in
Gazipur, as small-scale poultry farming does not need highly skilled labor and usually, the entrepreneurs themselves work in poultry farm alongside family members if required.
Although considerable efforts were made to use objective thresholds for the factors, as majority
of the thresholds were identified based on field survey result and literature research, there is some
degree of subjectivity in the result. The group of experts generally agreed in choosing the appropriate weights or relative importance of factors. The rank order of the weights, and even the weights
themselves of the study, were somewhat similar among the experts. It implies that the weight
selections were based on sound decisions. For example, flood-free high/low land was ranked first
in importance and given a weight of 0.566 to 0.449 by majority (6 out of 9) of the experts.
The result of GIS analysis/suitability analysis of poultry farm sites shows that Gazipur district is
very suitable for poultry farming, in the context of the existence of a vast area with infrastructures
such as wide paved roads, government livestock offices and veterinary personnel, and marketplaces
at reasonable distances, as well as its nearness to Bangladeshs biggest wholesale market for poultry
produce in the capital city in Dhaka district. NGOs can intervene in financing the farms, big as well
as small, in fulfilling their loan demand and offering loans, which are located in highly suitable or
suitable areas, to help them become larger and use more labor. NGOs can encourage their borrowers
to enter the poultry business to extend the value chain, such as in poultry processing and poultry feed
microenterprises.
Poultry farms in unsuitable or marginally suitable areas need special financial support to construct
poultry houses on high ground if they are currently built in low-lying areas, as this type of
construction involves extra costs. If the area is considered unsuitable owing to inadequate road
accessibility, the local government and NGOs should intervene by constructing a quality road in the
area. Insurance should be introduced, especially for farms working in vulnerable unsuitable areas, to
encourage the farmers to invest more, and NGOs should dare to meet the higher loan demand from
entrepreneurs, and thus help to reduce farmers dependency on buyers through advance sales of their
produce, and thus strengthen their opportunity for negotiation and to ensure profit.
Poultry farmers in unsuitable or marginally suitable areas need to be organized in strong associations that can work to ensure their profitability and sustainability. The association could then
create selling centers/markets at convenient places within the district that would enable the farmers
to assemble their products and sell directly to larger buyers or wholesalers from Dhaka who would
come to the market and thus give them some bargaining power. The association can collect products
from each farmer using shared transport to carry to the markets and thus ensure the farmers get
reasonable prices. The government can allocate land for establishing markets and NGOs can intervene in opening markets in the district.
The government should initiate a special program to provide veterinary support to the farmers
doorsteps, using their livestock personnel, especially in regions where the government livestock

SUITABILITY OF SITES FOR MICROENTERPRISES DEVELOPMENT

289

office is absent, or not near to the farms, and is thus considered unsuitable. With government
collaboration, NGOs working in these unsuitable areas should arrange to provide veterinary services
and training on the doorsteps of the microentrepreneurs, on areas such as poultry-rearing using
scientific methods, medication, and vaccination. The NGOs, especially those working in unsuitable
areas in Gazipur district, can set up a separate cell/department to provide support services, and
conduct different training courses for the poultry microentrepreneurs.
So, donors should keep a special/additional allocation of funds to disburse to the farmers in
unsuitable areas, to help the entrepreneurs to construct a structure to protect against disasters such as
flooding, and to establish the required infrastructure in the area.

Conclusions
Poultry may be considered as the most common microenterprise among poor people in rural areas
in Gazipur. As the biggest market for commercial poultry (broiler and layer) produce, with a huge
demand among consumers (urban dwellers) is in the capital city of Dhaka, which is very near to
Gazipur, this gives Gazipur many advantages for developing poultry farming. Moreover, many
NGOs and development agencies promote poultry farming among the poor as a route out of poverty
(McLeod 2007), in particular, rural poor women, who find the job to be very advantageous for them,
as they can take care of their children and, at the same time, can take care of their farm, which is just
adjacent to their house. The subsector involves a huge employment opportunity for many other poor
people (actors) engaged in different associated activities, such as those transporting feed, eggs, and
chicken by nonmotorized vehicles from the source to farm gate, and to agents in Gazipur, who are
engaged in the distribution of eggs and chickens from the wholesale market to retail shops in Dhaka.
The present study analyzed the poultry value chain and its associated constraints in Gazipur
district, and identified suitability of sites (or sites that lack suitability) for poultry MEs, using the
MCE technique within a GIS context, employing factors such as flood-free land and infrastructures
related to the poultry business, thus enabling the value chain environment. The analysis would allow
the government, donor agencies, and NGOs to select and decide areas in different subdistricts in
which to provide more financial, technical, or infrastructural support, instead of following homogeneity in their assistance efforts. The main result of the study shows that there are apparently vast areas
in Gazipur that have potential for poultry MEs, without serious constraints. The results do suggest the
effective utilization of the countrys limited resources, which is positive for the development of
poultry MEs, and for the ensuing development of the whole subsector in Bangladesh.
Though this study was undertaken in Gazipur, the methodology employed here would be useful
and applicable for other poultry production areas in Bangladesh. The effective policy for poultry
industrial development should be conducted based upon scientific discussion and spatial thinking.
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