Transcript Agriculture in Bangladesh:

Agriculture in Bangladesh:
Present position, Problems, Prospects and Policy
Presented by :
C.Q.K Mustaq Ahmed
Secretary
Ministry of Agriculture
Date: 01-03-2010
1
Outline
Bangladesh agriculture at a glance
 Characteristics
 Importance of agriculture
 Some challenges of agriculture
 Prospects
 Climate change and agriculture
 Factors related to climate change impact
 Consequences of climate change on agriculture
 Adapting to climate change
 Comprehensive approach to deal with the issues
 Policy Supports
 Conclusion

2
Bangladesh Agriculture at a Glance
Total farm holding: 1,47,16,000
 Total area: 14.845 million hectares
 Cultivable land: 8 million hectares
 Current fallow land: 0.469m hectares
 Annual Food Production: 31.9m MT
 Annual Food demand: 31.9m MT

3
Strategies:
Self-sufficiency in food: 2012
 Ensuring food security: 2017(a+a+n)
 Middle Income Country: 2022


*(a+a+n=Availability, accessibility and nutrition)
4
2012
34.2 million tons
production
Self sufficiency in food
2008
31.9 million ton
production
*Breakeven point
Strategy for achieving self-sufficiency in food
5
Food indicates only staple food
Characteristics of Bangladesh
Agriculture
 Cropping
intensity 179%
 Irrigated land 56%
 Surface water:21% groundwater:79%
 Land-man ratio: .06 ha
 Mainly subsistence farming
 Inadequate agro-processing
 Non-mechanized farming
 Fragmented land/plots
 Dependence largely on nature
6
Importance of agriculture
 21%
GDP
 48% labor force
 Source of raw materials as backward
and forward linkage for agro based
industries
 Agriculture determines people’s lives
and livelihood of this region
 People living in rural areas 77%
 Export value 12%
7
Some challenges









Rapid shrinkage of agricultural land @1% p.a.
Population growth @1.48% p.a.
Climate change and variations
Rapid urbanization growth @12% p.a.
Agricultural research and education (manpower
shortage, updating course curriculum)
Technology generation (needs expertise, time and
money)
Technology dissemination (needs expertise,
time, logistics support)
Alternate livelihoods/rehabilitation program
Inadequate value addition /food processing
8
Challenges continued…
 Climate
change adaptation & mitigation
 Developing stress tolerant varieties
 Transferring updated information and
technologies to the field
 Attaining irrigation efficiency
 Regaining soil fertility and natural ingredients
 Research-extension-farmer-market linkage
 Shortage of Agril labour at peak seasons
9
Prospects of Agriculture:








Modern technological know-how is available for
dissemination
Scope for expanding hybrid technology exists(10%)
Prospects for adoption of advanced technology in
agriculture are bright
Potentials for proper utilization of hilly/coastal areas
including agro-ecologically disadvantaged regions
exist
Export potentials exist for high-value crops
Scope for crop diversification, intensification and
value addition to agricultural produces
Agriculture sector has capacity to absorb labor force
and to generate income
Scope for reducing yield gaps exists
10
Why Climate Change matters for
agriculture?
 Heavily
depends on natural rainfall, weather
& temperature, water level, soil condition
etc.
 Uncontrolled farming environment
 Rice based agriculture greatly depends
availability of fresh surface and ground water
 Seasonal farming
 Lack of stress tolerant varieties
 Changed cropping pattern
11
Types of climate change problems
 Sea
Level Rise (SLR)
 Floods
 Riverbank erosion
 Drought
 Salinity intrusion
 Loss of homestead and livelihoods
 Pest infestation
 Land scarcity
12
Factors related to climate change
 Indiscriminate
use of natural
resources
 Excessive and unplanned
urbanization
 Unplanned industrial growth
 Imbalanced use of agricultural inputs
and extreme farming
 Population pressure
 Effect of industrial pollution by
developed countries
13
Combating Climate Change Impact
Adaptation:
Stress (flood, drought, submergence,
salinity, heat, cold..) tolerant varieties
Short duration crops
Innovative farming practices
Floating cultivation method
Crop diversification
Changing/shifting cropping pattern
Alternate wetting and drying irrigation
methods
14
Continued…
Mitigation
Coastal
green belt
Embankment/Dam
Tidal River Management
Early warning and weather
forecasting
Cyclone shelters
Crop insurance
15
Collective efforts needed
 Political
commitment
 Educational Institutions
 Civil society
 NGOs
 Media
 Research organizations
 Department of Agricultural
Extension/Extension service providers
 Global cooperation
16
Recurrent natural calamities
 Cyclones
1970, 1991, 2007(Sidr), 2009(Ayla)
 Floods 1988, 2000, 2004, 2007
 Erratic rainfall (e.g. late rainfall Aug/’09)
 Severe drought
 Heat and cold waves
 Northwestern storm
 Pest infestation
 Draw down/Declining Water Table
17
Last two decades agricultural growth






Inputs based growth
(intensive use of HYV/Hybrid seeds,
irrigation, fertilizer, pesticides, etc.)
Less mechanized farming
Insignificant methodological change of
farming
Crop diversification
Combination of vertical & horizontal growth
Presently less scope of horizontal growth
18
Policy support
National Agriculture Policy[1999; 2009(draft)]
 New Agricultural Extension Policy
 National Food Policy
 National Seed Policy
 National IPM policy
 Fertilizer Management (Amendment) Act,2009
 The Pesticide Act, 2009
 Rural Credit Policy (Farmers friendly)
 Land Policy & National Land use policy

19
PRSP- Agriculture and Rural Development
PRSP places agriculture and rural
development as key driver of pro-poor
growth strategy.
 Government’s policy is to create enabling
environment and support transformation of
subsistence agriculture to a more diversified
agribusiness with increased participation of
private sector.

20
Continued…

Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP),
entitled “Unlocking the Potential –National
Strategy for Accelerated Poverty Reduction”
(2005), highlights the need for
- higher growth in rural areas, development
of agriculture and rural non-farm
economic activities as one of the four
priority areas to accelerating pro-poor
economic growth.
21
Continued…

PRSP puts emphasis on achieving productivity
and profitability gains, broad-based support to
agriculture, diversification and
commercialization of agricultural enterprises.

PRSP also stressed on agricultural research
and technology generation, farmers’ demandled extension services, energizing agricultural
marketing and agro-processing, land use and
women in agriculture.
22
Continued…
The most important feature of PRSP is the
formulation of precise and workable policy
matrix, which identifies 22 crucially important
strategic goals, fixes up targets against these
goals, charts actions already taken, sets future
policy agenda and priorities and delineates
responsibilities for the concerned ministries.
23
Government’s recent interventions
Farmers database and Farmers Inputs Support Card to
1 Crore 82 Lakh farmers.
 Increased subsidy on Agricultural Inputs (Fertilizer,
diesel, electricity, seeds)
 Farmer friendly agricultural credit policy
 1 Crore 82 Lakh farmers’ new bank accounts being
opened
 100 Hr. free supplementary irrigation
 Enhanced Agricultural rehab grants to victims of
natural calamities
 Support for accelerated mechanization of agriculture
 Surface water irrigation

24
Conclusion:
Agriculture is the determining factor for
food security as well as pro-poor
development of Bangladesh economy.
The Problems of agriculture are
multifaceted. So the ways of addressing
the challenges should be
comprehensive, global and participatory
for sustainable agricultural
development.
25
26