Agriculture of Bangladesh
Bangladesh is primarily an agrarian economy. Agriculture is the single largest producing sector of economy since it comprises about 30% of the country's GDP and employing around 60% of the total labour force. The performance of this sector has an overwhelming impact on major macroeconomic objectives like employment generation, poverty alleviation, human resources development and food security.
Meeting the nation's food requirements remains the key-objective of the
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government and in recent years there has been substantial increase in grain production. However, due to calamities like flood, loss of food and cash crops is a recurring phenomenon which disrupts the continuing progress of the entire economy.
Agricultural holdings in Bangladesh are generally small. Through Cooperatives the use of modern machinery is gradually gaining popularity. Rice, Jute, Sugarcane, Potato, Pulses, Wheat, Tea and Tobacco are the principal crops. The crop sub-sector dominates the agriculture sector contributing about 72% of total production. Fisheries, livestock and forestry sub-sectors are 10.33%, 10.11% and 7.33% respectively.
Bangladesh is the largest producer of Jute. Rice being the staple food, its production is of major importance. Rice production stood at 20.3 million tons in 1996-97 fiscal years. Crop diversification program, credit, extension and research, and input distribution policies pursued by the government are yielding positive results. The country is now on the threshold of attaining self-sufficiency in food grain production.
Foreign Aid
The government is aware of the fact that because of the existing international economic environment the amount of foreign aid so essential for developing countries like Bangladesh is fast dwindling. The conditionality of aid is also becoming stringent. The government has, therefore, taken appropriate initiatives for proper utilization of foreign aid. The country's development partners at the same time ought to acknowledge that Bangladesh not only needs more aid but also better aid.
The government has given the highest priority to implementing with utmost efficiency the annual development programme (ADP) which allocates domestic and foreign resources to different sectors of the economy. From the economic and social points of view, agriculture is the country's most important sector as it contributes 32.4 percent of GDP and about 75 percent of its 120 million people are directly or indirectly dependent on it for their livelihood. But because of declining growth in agriculture in the past the standard of life of the small and marginal farmers had been going down forcing the nation to become increasingly
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dependent on food imports.
The government has, therefore, decided to increase allocation for agriculture substantially and offer a wide range of incentives to the
Farmers including liberal credit to raise production and generate on-farm and off-farm employment for the rural poor. An Agriculture Commission has also been set up to recommend long-term policy reforms to boost the sector.
Rivers and Lakes of Bangladesh
Rivers are the most important geographical features in Bangladesh, and it is the rivers that created the vast alluvial delta. It's been known that the out flow of water from Bangladesh is the third highest in the world, after the Amazon and the Congo systems. The Padma, Jamuna and the lower Meghan are the widest rivers, with the latter expanding to around eight kilometers across in the wet season, and even more during the floods.
Some rivers are known by different names in various portions of their course. The Ganges (Ganga), for example, is known as the Padma below the point where it is joined by the Jamuna River, the name given to the lowermost portion of the main channel of the Brahmaputra. The combined stream is then called the Meghan below its confluence with a much smaller tributary of the same name. In the dry season the numerous deltaic distributaries that lace the terrain may be several kilometers wide as they near the Bay of Bengal, whereas at the height of the summer monsoon season they coalesce into an extremely broad expanse of silt-laden water. In much of the delta, therefore, homes must be constructed on earthen platforms or embankments high enough to remain above the level of all but the highest floods. In non-monsoon months the exposed ground is pocked with water-filled borrow pits, or tanks, from which the mud for the embankments was excavated. Throughout the country there are bils, haors and lakes that meet the need of drinking, bathing and irrigating water.
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Water Resources
about two thirds of the cultivable lands at Bangladesh are prone to flood
damage every years. Thus flood control and drainage improvement are crucial for the national economy in order to reduce or prevent damage to crops and infrastructure. Since agriculture and water resources arc linked, increasing food grain production requires water management through flood
Control, drainage and irrigation.
The dual problem of shortage of water during the dry season and its abundance in rainy season are critical in the development and management of water resources in Bangladesh. Being the lower riparian of the three major rivers of the world-the Ganges, the Brahmaputra and the Meghan-Bangladesh could not undertake meaningful water development in the past in order to properly harness their flows for the benefit of the people.
The historic Ganges Water sharing Treaty signed with India on 12 December, 1996, has opened up newer avenues for offsetting the negative impact of Farakka Barrage and tapping the potentials of water resources in the country. Opportunities have also opened up for regional. Sub-regional and basin-wide development and management of water for mutual benefit. It is in this backdrop that the Ganges Barrage has been taken up by the present government for implementation.
Land, Resources & Natural Regions
Most of Bangladesh lies within the broad delta formed by the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers and is exceedingly flat, low-lying, and subject to annual flooding. Much fertile, alluvial soil is deposited by the floodwaters. The only significant area of hilly terrain, constituting less than one-tenth of the nation's territory, is the Chittagong Hill Tracts District in the narrow south-eastern panhandle of the country. There, on the border with Myanmar, is Mowdok Mual (1,003 m/3,291 ft), the country's highest peak. Small, scattered hills lie along or near the eastern and northern borders with India. The eroded remnants of two old alluvial terraces-the Mahout Tract, in the north central part of the country, and The Barind, straddling the north-western boundary with India-attain elevations of about 30 m
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(About 100 ft). The soil here is much less fertile than the annually
Replenished alluvium of the surrounding floodplain.
Demographic Features
the country's population is almost evenly distributed throughout its 64 districts except for the three Hill Tracts districts which are rather sparsely inhabited. Regionally, the eastern districts have a slightly higher density than the western ones. On average, a district has a population of about 1.8 million, a thana 230,000, a union 25,000 and a village 2,000. There are 490 thanas, 4,451 unions and 59,990 villages. The number of households is about 20 million. On average, a household consists of 5.6 persons. The tribal people, who lead a simple life, are generally self-reliant, producing their own food and drinks and weaving their own clothes.
There are 4 metropolitan cities and 119 municipalities in the country. The level of urbanization is low at 20%. This leaves 80% of the country's total population of about 120 million to live in the rural areas which primarily depend on a poorly developed agriculture for livelihood. The capital city of Dhaka has an estimated population of 8.58 million. The annual growth rate of the population has come down to 1.75% with the acceptance of family planning practices rising to 48.7%. The crude birth rate per 1000 is 25.6 and the death rate is 8.1. Life expectancy at birth is 59.5 years. The rate of child mortality per 1000 has come down to 76.8 and that of maternal mortality to 4.5. About 96.3% families in the country have now access to safe drinking water. The sex ratio is 106 males for every 100 females. The density of population per square kilometre is 800.
Some 44.3% of the people are literate with about 5 million having passed secondary school level and another 1.27 million being graduates. The primary school enrolment rate has risen to 86% and the rate for secondary school enrolment to 33%. To intensify promotion of compulsory primary education, the food-for education programme has been extended to over 16,000 schools. More and more primary schools will be brought under this programme.
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