A paper on Bangladeshi Agriculture Sector

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A paper on Bangladeshi Agriculture Sector

Introduction:

Bangladesh, a poor developing country, is extremely dependent on agriculture for a number of reasons. Over the last three decades, the Bangladeshi agricultural sector has experienced tremendous changes. Agriculture continues to play a major role in Bangladesh as it employs about 67% of the total working population even though the share of agriculture in GDP shrunk by 21.2% in last 13 years from 1973/74 to 1996/97. Therefore, needless to say that agriculture is the most dominant sector in the Bangladeshi economy.

Comparative Scenario of Agricultural Sector: Three broad categories can be used to classify the performance of agricultural sector over the past few decades. They are-

  1. Pre-Green Revolution Era
  2. Green Revolution Era
  3. Post- Green Revolution Era

Pre- green revolution era covers the time span before the mid sixties when the green revolution package was introduced globally. Farmers did not have access to modern agricultural facilities like agri-information and improved technology which include power-pumps, power-tillers, tube wells, pesticides, irrigation facilities, fertilizers, high breed seeds etc. at that time. As a result, agriculture was, in fact, totally dependent on nature. Consequently, food production was insufficient compare to the demand.

The green revolution era started when the “Green revolution package” was introduced in the sixties with the objective of utilizing existing agro-resources efficiently and hence increasing food production to meet the increasing demand of population. The package comprised of all those factors missing during the pre- green revolution era whose salient features were liberalization of trade in key agri-inputs and market friendly economic policies. This led to a rapid growth of food grain output in Bangladesh. However, this package was eventually extended which became familiar as “Extended Green Revolution Package”.

The late nineteen eighties marked the beginning of the post green revolution period. In this period we observed a decline in the agricultural production particularly in cereals. The marked slowdown in rice production growth since the early nineties continued into 1994/95. Therefore, growth rate in cereal production fell by 0.2% per annum over the period of last twenty years or so. Production of pulses and oilseeds reflected a zero growth while production of tubers grew at 2.3% per annum over 1983/84 to 1996/97. However, production of vegetables increased by 2.5% per annum. There was also an increase in the growth of summer vegetables.

The Bangladesh agri-sector is marginally self-sufficient despite the upsurge in the food production over the last 15 years. This has been caused by some problems putting constraints in agricultural sector.

Problems in Agricultural Sector:

Despite the fact that quite a few problems have been solved by the introduction of green revolution package, greater portions of them remain still unsolved. Some of them are traditional in nature while others have newly emerged. Some of the major problems needing immediate attention of the government are stated below.

  • HIGH POPULATION GROWTH: The population of Bangladesh is projected to grow from 121.1ml. in 1995 to 154.0 ml. in 2010 to 172.9 ml. in 2020. While food grain demand is projected to increase from 23.48 ml. metric tons (MT) to 29.94 ml. MT in 2010 to about 33.58 ml. MT in 2020. The high percentage increase in population growth rate will lead to a corresponding high percentage increase in demand for food grain which the agricultural sector of the country will find difficult to cope with. Despite the fact that the green revolution has stimulated the productivity in agri-sector, it has been greatly overshadowed by the high population growth rate. This in turn has been brought about by innovations and improvements in medicine.

  • DISGUISED UNEMPLOYMENT: One of the direct consequences of high population growth rate is disguised unemployment. This is causing a great hindrance in development process. This also implies an increasing dependency ratio in the economy. It is very common to find family consisting of 5-9 members in the rural sector of Bangladesh. In such families all the members depend upon the only earning member who, in most cases is a subsistent farmer. Therefore, when the children of such families reach an age of 5-6, they are also used in farming activities even though they may not be needed at all. Thus we have a large number of unskilled labor force in agri-sector. Steps should be taken to guide this labor force properly.

  • LOW ESTEEM OF AGRI-SECTOR RELATED JOBS: Over the years, it has been observed that the agricultural sector in Bangladesh usually does not get much respect by the society. Even today the situation is unchanged. This is the single most striking factor of the agricultural sector. This is due to the fact that most of the workers engaged in agriculture are usually illiterate.

  • LOW INCOME OF AGRICULTURAL COMMUNITY: Another reason for less respect accorded towards agri-community is their low income earning compared to the earnings of other professions. This occurs mainly because of two reasons- a) very often farmers experience crop failure problems thereby get entangled in various debts & b) farmers are exposed to high fluctuations in market prices of agri-products. At times of bumper harvest, outputs prices sharply fall and farmer incur losses this again makes them fall in debt. It would be difficult for farmers to come out of vicious trap of low prices in years of bountiful harvest.
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  • PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH “LANDLESSNESS” & “LAND TENURE POLICIES”: Two of the vital problems facing the agri-sector are associated with Landlessness of the farmers and problems in Land tenure police. It is often observed in our country that the farmers lost their land due to river erosion and thus they become landless. This causes a great problem both for them as well as for the country as they become unemployed and hence dependent on others. Moreover, flaws in Land Tenure Policies more oftenly deprive true farmers from getting their benefits. Such problems are of great concern in achieving modern agri-sector for Bangladesh.
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