Transcript Agriculture in Bangladesh:

Agriculture in Bangladesh:
Present position, Problems,
Prospects and Policy
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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
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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
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Strategies:
Self-sufficiency in food: 2012
 Ensuring food security: 2017(a+a+n)
 Middle Income Country: 2022
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*(a+a+n=Availability, accessibility and nutrition)
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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
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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
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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%
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Some challenges
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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
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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
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Prospects of Agriculture:
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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
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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
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Types of climate change problems
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Sea Level Rise (SLR)
Floods
Riverbank erosion
Drought
Salinity intrusion
Loss of homestead and livelihoods
Pest infestation
Land scarcity
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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
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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
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Continued…
Mitigation
Coastal
green belt
Embankment/Dam
Tidal River Management
Early warning and weather
forecasting
Cyclone shelters
Crop insurance
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Collective efforts needed
 Political
commitment
 Educational Institutions
 Civil society
 NGOs
 Media
 Research organizations
 Department of Agricultural
Extension/Extension service providers
 Global cooperation
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Recurrent natural calamities
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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
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Last two decades agricultural growth
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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
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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
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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.
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Continued…
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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.
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Continued…
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PRSP puts emphasis on achieving
productivity and profitability gains, broadbased support to agriculture, diversification
and commercialization of agricultural
enterprises.
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PRSP also stressed on agricultural research
and technology generation, farmers’
demand-led extension services, energizing
agricultural marketing and agro-processing,
land use and women in agriculture.
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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.
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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
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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.
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