Agriculture in Bangladesh

About Agriculture

Agriculture plays a major role in a man’s life – it is one of the main sources of livelihood, so people should at least learn about it and ask: What is agriculture? Where and when did it start?

Agriculture in Bangladesh

So what is agriculture? It is the nurturing of plants, animals and other life forms for their products used to support needs. Researchers say that it is difficult to pin-point exactly where and when it started, but it is believed that agriculture was developed
some 10,000 years ago and the places that show traces of the earliest planting and gathering of crops were: India, Egypt, and the Fertile Crescent of Western Asia. It is also assumed that the historic people changed from being hunters and gatherers to farmers, to make up for the shortage in their supplies.

Agriculture in Bangladesh

 

Agricukture in 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 remain the key-objective of the 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.
 

Agriculture in Bangladesh

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.

Agriculture in Bangladesh

Bangladesh is the largest producer of world best jute, which also known as natural jute or raw jute. Rice being the staple food, its production is of major importance. Rice production stood at 20.3 million tons in 1996-97 fiscal year. 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. 

Importance of Agriculture 

 

Map of Bangladesh

Why is it important for us to know what is agriculture? The answer is simple. We have to know and understand what it is because we rely on agriculture more than we know. Most of us know agriculture as something that involves only the farmers. We think that we do not have anything to do with it because we are not the ones producing crops and raising livestock. This only means that most of us do not really know what is agriculture.

Agriculture is the art and business of cultivating soil, raising livestock and producing crops. It is also called farming or husbandry. The products of agriculture are fruits, vegetables and livestock.  In other words, agriculture is the source of the food that we eat. Food is one of the primary needs of man. Without food, a person will not be healthy and will grow weak in time. Lack of food may even lead to death.

Agriculture in Bangladesh

It is important for us to know what is agriculture because it helps us secure food supply for our everyday needs. The food that we eat provides us with the nutrition that we need to stay healthy and strong. Food rich in carbohydrates such as rice, bread and pasta supplies us with the energy that we need to perform our daily tasks and activities. Food rich in protein such as lean meat, fish, chicken, egg, milk and cheese are foods that acts as building blocks of our body and helps in muscle formation. Fruits and vegetables are loaded with vitamins and minerals that boost our body’s immune system and build our resistance against illnesses and infections.

It is certainly important for us to know what is agriculture because it is a part of our everyday life. Knowing it should make us understand how important it is to everyone of us.

Food crops

Agriculture in Bangladesh

Although rice and jute are the primary crops, maize and vegetables are assuming greater importance. Due to the expansion of irrigation networks, some wheat producers have switched to cultivation of maize which is used mostly as poultry feed. Tea is grown in the northeast. Because of Bangladesh's fertile soil and normally ample water supply, rice can be grown and harvested three times a year in many areas. Due to a number of factors, Bangladesh's labor-intensive agriculture has achieved steady increases in food grain production despite the often unfavorable weather conditions. These include better flood control and irrigation, a generally more efficient use of fertilizer, and the establishment of better distribution and rural credit networks. With 28.8 million metric tons produced in 2005-2006 (July–June), rice is Bangladesh's principal crop. By comparison, wheat output in 2005-2006 was 9 million metric tons. Population pressure continues to place a severe burden on productive capacity, creating a food deficit, especially of wheat. Foreign assistance and commercial imports fill the gap. Underemployment remains a serious problem, and a growing concern for Bangladesh's agricultural sector will be its ability to absorb additional manpower. 

Bangladesh is the fourth largest rice producing country in the world. National sales of the classes of insecticide used on rice, including granular carbofuran, synthetic pyrethroids,  and malathion Bangladesh Rice Research Institute is working with various NGOs and international organizations to reduce insecticide use in rice. 

New Rice Curter Machine 

Wheat is not a traditional crop in Bangladesh, and in the late 1980s little was consumed in rural areas. During the 1960s and early 1970s, however, it was the only commodity for which local consumption increased because external food aid was most often provided in the form of wheat. In the first half of the 1980s, domestic wheat production rose to more than 1 million tons per year but was still only 7 to 9 percent of total food grain production. Record production of nearly 1.5 million tons was achieved in FY 1985, but the following year saw a decrease to just over 1 million tons. About half the wheat is grown on irrigated land. The proportion of land devoted to wheat remained essentially unchanged between 1980 and 1986, at a little less than 6 percent of total planted area.

Wheat also accounts for the great bulk of imported food grains, exceeding 1 million tons annually and going higher than 1.8 million tons in FY 1984, FY 1985, and FY 1987. The great bulk of the imported wheat is financed under aid programs of the United States, the European Economic Community, and the World Food Programme.

The Picture of agriculture of Bangladesh

Food grains are cultivated primarily for subsistence. Only a small percentage of total production makes its way into commercial channels. Other Bangladeshi food crops, however, are grown chiefly for the domestic market. They include potatoes and sweet potatoes, with a combined record production of 1.9 million tons in FY 1984; oilseeds, with an annual average production of 250,000 tons; and fruits such as bananas, jackfruit, mangoes, and pineapples. Estimates of sugarcane production put annual production at more than 7 million tons per year, most of it processed into a coarse, unrefined sugar known as gur, and sold domestically.