Infrmation about agriculture in Bangladesh

More Information about Agriculture in Bangladesh

A real Picture of a farmer

Almost 80% of the total population of Bangladesh live in rural areas and are directly or indirectly engaged in various agricultural activities. The economic of the country is largely dependent on agriculture.

The agriculture sector comprises crops, forests, fisheries and livestock plays a very important role in the economy of the country accounting for 31.6 percent of total GDP in 1997-98 at constant (1984-85) prices.
Of the agricultural GDP, the crop sub-sector contributes 71 %, forest 10 %, fisheries 10 % and livestock 9 %. The sector generates 63.2% percent of total national employment and constituted more than 10 % of total exports of the country in 1997-98.

Bangladesh is a land of rivers. So agriculture is the main occupation of Bangladeshi People.

Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC) the successor of the East Pakistan Agricultural Development Corporation, established under the Agricultural Development Corporation Ordinance, 1961 (E.P. Ordinance XXXVII of 1961). The corporation has completed 50 years of its establishment on 16 October, 2011. In 1975, BADC was renamed as the Bangladesh Agricultural Inputs Supply and Services Corporation (BAISSC) to distinguish the functions of the corporation from other development agencies of the Government in the agricultural sector. But again in 1976 BAISSC was renamed as BADC. Based in Dhaka city, BADC, an autonomous corporate body under the Ministry of Agriculture, serves to the whole of Bangladesh and has a nationwide network of outlying field offices down to the upazila level and at some places even below that level.

The general direction and administration of the corporation and all of its affairs are vested in a Board of Directors headed by the Chairman. The operational set-up of the Corporation comprises five wings. These are: Seed & Horticulture, Minor Irrigation, Fertilizer Management, Finance and Administration. The administrative wing is under the direct control of the Chairman, and each wing is headed by the concerned Member Director.

The mandatory or primary functions of BADC are: to make suitable arrangements throughout Bangladesh for the production, procurement, transport, storage and distribution of essential agricultural inputs such as seed and fertilizers and providing irrigation facilities through utilization of surface and underground water to the farmers.

Professionals from different disciplines such as agriculture, engineering, economics, management etc. work together in BADC. The total number of sanctioned posts was 25,451. But during the early 90s due to withdrawal of fertilizer management activities from BADC and privatization of irrigation activities and also due to normal and voluntary retirement and other reasons the number of working people and capacity of the organization was reduced. 

In 1999 through a gazette notification (published in Bangladesh Gazette on November 22, 1999) the corporation was reorganized and entrusted with some new activities on seed production and irrigation. In 2009 the corporation is made more vibrantand is given some more responsibilities such as providing irrigation facilities to the farmer through surface water utilization, import of non-urea fertilizer through G2G arrangement and strengthening of seed production activities with the task of multiplication of high yielding and different stress tolerant varieties of seeds allocating financial support through new projects and programmes.

Important Information About Agriculture in Bangladesh    

Facts and Figures:

(Source: BBS, 2006 and Handbook Agricultural Statistics, MoA)

1.	Total famil	17,600,804
2.	Total farm holdin	15,089,000
3.	Total area	14.845 million hectare
4.	Forest	2.599 million hectare
5.	Cultivable land	8.44 million hectare
6.	Cultivable waste	0.268 million hectare
7.	Cultivable fellow	0.469 million hectare
8.	Current fellow	0.407 million hectare
9.	Cropping intensity	175.97%
10.	Single cropped area	2.851 million hectare

11.	Double cropp	3.984 million hectare
12.	Triple cropped area	0.974 million hectare
13.	Net cropped area	7.809 million hectare
14.	Total cropped area	13.742 million hectare
15.	Contribution of agriculture sector to GDP	23.50%
16.	Contribution of crop sector to GDP	13.44%
17.	Manpower in agriculture	62%
18.	Total food crop demand	23.029 million metric ton
19.	Total food crop production	27.787 million metric ton
20.	Net production	24.569 million metric ton
21.	Food Surplus	2.547 million metric Ton