Bangladesh Agriculture at a Glance Total family Total farm holding Total area Forest Cultivable land Cultivable waste

Current fellow Cropping intensity Single cropped area Double cropped area Triple cropped area Net cropped area Total cropped area Contribution of crop sector to GDP Manpower in agriculture(% of Total manpower) Total food crop production

: 2,86,95,763 : 1,51,83,183 : 14.86 million hectare : 2.599 million hectare : 8.52 million hectare : 0.268 million hectare : 0.469 million hectare : 191% : 2.236 million hectare : 4.107 million hectare : 1.485 million hectare : 7.837 million hectare : 14.943 million hectare : 13.44% : 47.5% : 37.266 million metric ton

Contribution of agriculture sector to GDP : 19.29%

Source: DAE/AIS 2013, BBS 2006 & 2012

http://www.moa.gov.bd/statistics/bag.htm

Agricultural in bd
Bangladesh has a primarily agrarian economy. Agriculture is the single largest producing sector of the economy since it comprises about 18.6% (data released on November, 2010) of the country's GDP and employs around 45% of the total labor force.[1] The performance of this sector has an overwhelming impact on major macroeconomic objectives like employment generation, poverty alleviation, human resources development and food security. A plurality of Bangladeshis earn their living from agriculture. Although rice and jute are the primary crops, wheat is assuming greater importance. 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 fertilizers, and the establishment of better distribution and rural credit networks. With 35.8 million metric tons produced in 2000, rice is Bangladesh's principal crop. National sales of the classes of insecticide used on rice, including granular carbofuran, synthetic pyrethroids, and

malathion exceeded 13,000 tons of formulated product in 2003.[2][3] The insecticides not only represent an environmental threat, but are a significant expenditure to poor rice farmers. The Bangladesh Rice Research Institute is working with various NGOs and international organizations to reduce insecticide use in rice.[4] In comparison to rice, wheat output in 1999 was 1.9 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. Finding alternative sources of employment will continue to be a daunting problem for future governments, particularly with the increasing numbers of landless peasants who already account for about half the rural labor force.

Food crops
Although Rice,Wheat,Mango and jute are the primary crops,assuming greater importance.[5] Due to the expansion of irrigation networks, some wheat producers have switched to cultivation of maize which is used mostly as poultry feed.[5] Tea is grown in the northeast.[5] Because of Bangladesh's fertile soil and normally ample water supply, rice can be grown and harvested three times a year in many areas.[5] 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.[5] These include better flood control and irrigation, a generally more efficient use of fertilizers, and the establishment of better distribution and rural credit networks.[5] With 28.8 million metric tons produced in 2005-2006 (JulyJune), rice is Bangladesh's principal crop.[5] By comparison, wheat output in 2005-2006 was 9 million metric tons.[5] Population pressure continues to place a severe burden on productive capacity, creating a food deficit, especially of wheat.[5] Foreign assistance and commercial imports fill the gap.[5]Underemployment remains a serious problem, and a growing concern for Bangladesh's agricultural sector will be its ability to absorb additional manpower.[5] Bangladesh is the fourth largest rice[6] producing country in the world. National sales of the classes of insecticide used on rice, including granular carbofuran, synthetic pyrethroids, and malathion exceeded 13,000 tons of formulated product in 2003 [1][2]. The insecticides not only represent an environmental threat, but are a significant expenditure to poor rice farmers. The Bangladesh Rice Research Institute is working with various NGOs and international organizations to reduce insecticide use in rice [3]. 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. 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. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agriculture_in_Bangladesh

Forest in bd
Wood is the main fuel for cooking and other domestic requirements. It is not surprising that population pressure has had an adverse effect on the indigenous forests. By 1980 only about 16 percent of the land was forested, and forests had all but disappeared from the densely populated and intensively cultivated deltaic plain. Aid organizations in the mid-1980s began looking into the possibility of stimulating small-scale forestry to restore a resource for which there was no affordable substitute. The largest areas of forest are in the Chittagong Hills and the Sundarbans. The evergreen and deciduous forests of the Chittagong Hills cover more than 4,600 square kilometres (1,800 sq mi) and are the source of teak for heavy construction and boat building, as well as other forest products. Domesticated elephants are still used to haul logs. The Sundarbans, a tidal mangrove forest covering nearly 6,000 square kilometres (2,300 sq mi) along the Bay of Bengal, is the source of timber used for a variety of purposes, including pulp for the domestic paper industry, poles for electric power distribution, and leaves for thatching for dwellings. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forestry_in_Bangladesh

Fishing in Bangladesh
Bangladesh being a first line littoral state of the Indian Ocean has a very good source of marine resources in the Bay of Bengal. The country has an exclusive economic zone of 41,000 square miles (110,000 km2), which is 73% of the country's land area. On the other hand, Bangladesh is a small and developing country overloaded with almost unbearable pressure of human population. In the past, people of Bangladesh were mostly dependent upon land-based proteins. But, the continuous process of industrialization and urbanization consumes the limited land area. Now there is no other way than to harvest the vast under water protein from the Bay of Bengal, which can meet the country's demand.

More than 80 percent of the animal protein in the Bangladeshi diet comes from fish. Fish accounted for 6 percent of GDP in the fiscal year of 1970, nearly 50 percent more than modern industrial manufacturing at that time. Most commercial fishermen are low-casteHindus who eke out the barest subsistence working under primitive and dangerous conditions. They bring a high degree of skill and ingenuity to their occupation; a few of the most enterprising ones are aided by domesticated otters, which behave like shepherds, swimming underwater, driving fish toward the fisherman's net (and being rewarded themselves with a share of the catch). Fish for local consumption are generally of freshwater varieties.

Contents

1Shrimp farming 2Training and education 3See also 4References 5External links

Shrimp farming
As of the end of 1987, prevailing methods for culturing shrimp in Bangladesh were still relatively unsophisticated, and average yields per hectare were low. In the late 1980s, almost all inland shrimping was done by capture rather than by intensive aquaculture. Farmers relied primarily on wild postlarval and juvenile shrimp as their sources of stock, acquired either by trapping in ponds during tidal water exchange or by gathering from local estuaries and stocking directly in the ponds. Despite the seemingly low level of technology applied to shrimp aquaculture, it became an increasingly important part of the frozen seafood industry in the mid1980s. The shrimp farming industry in Bangladesh has been handicapped by low-quality and low prices.[1] The World Bank and the Asian Development Bank financed projects to develop shrimp aquaculture in the 1980s. Much of the emphasis was on construction of modern hatcheries. Private investors were also initiating similar projects to increase capacity and to introduce modern technology that would increase average yields. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has provided assistance to the shrimp and fishing industry in meeting fish safety and quality control standards based on the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) approach.[1] Shrimp in the wild are associated with mangrove. Mangrove estuaries such as those found in the Sundarbans of southwestern Bangladesh are especially rich productive ecosystems and provide the spawning grounds for shrimp and fish.[2] Intensive shrimp farming often involves conversion of mangrove stands to brine ponds where shrimp are grown.[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fishing_in_Bangladesh

The Ministry of Agriculture is working to develop the agricultural sector of Bangladesh through numerous projects and agencies. This ministry addresses to the highest number of stakeholder in the country. The business scope ranges from crop development to agrobased industries with research on agriculture, agricultural engineering and agro-economics. The economy of Bangladesh is predominantly agricultural. Since the birth of Bangladesh, the country has achieved an incredible growth in food production and reached towards selfsufficiency by the year 1990. About 80 percent of the total population lives in rural areas, and 62 percent of them are directly, and others are indirectly engaged in a wide range of agricultural activities. The agricultural sector contributes around 29 percent of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and generates employment for 63 percent of the total labor force. The general agricultural sectors are Rice crops, Jute, Cotton, Sugarcane, Flower, Sericulture, Horticulture, Fisheries, Vegetables, Livestock, Soil Development, Seed development and distribution. Nuclear Agriculture has brought a new dynamic change in the agricultural sectors of Bangladesh. This grand success has mainly been brought by the farmers through using modern technologies developed by research organizations and effective Agricultural Extension Services of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) . BADC is entrusted with the task of multiplication, production and supply of high-yielding varieties of seeds. It has 21 Seed Multiplication Farms and 15 Contract Growers Zones for this purpose. Later, Seeds are mechanically processed in 12 Seed Processing Centers in and around the seed production zones. The Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC) under the Ministry of Agriculture is involved cooperative activities in several ministries of government: Agriculture, Forest and Environment, Fisheries and Livestock, Rural Development, Education, Industries, Commerce, Science and Technology, etc. Realizing the importance of rice in food security and political stability of the country, Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) is working to feed the increasing population through radical change in rice production, replacement of the low-yielding traditional varieties and age old production practices of rice by high-yielding varieties and improved production technologies. International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) is involved for the same issue. BARI (Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute) is the largest multi-crop research institute conducting research on a large number of crops, such as cereals, tubers, pulses, oilseeds, vegetables, fruits, spices, flowers, etc. Besides variety development, this institute also carries out research on non-commodity areas, such as soil and crop management, disease and insect management, irrigation and water management, development of farm machinery, improvement of cropping and farming system management, post-harvest handling and processing, and socio-economics studies related to production, marketing, and consumption. Using radiation technique, Bangladesh Institute of Nuclear Agriculture (BINA) has already developed 37 improved mutant varieties of different crops have been released by the National Seed Board of Bangladesh for large-scale cultivation in the farmers' field. The part of greater Rajshahi, Dinajpur, Rangpur and Bogra District of Bangladesh and the Indian territorial Maldah District of West Bengal is geographically identified as Barind Tract where the soil is hard and red, and difficult for cultivation. Barind Multipurpose Development Authority works under the Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC) for the agricultural development of those areas. Cotton Development Board (CDB) has established under the Ministry of Agriculture to introduce and promote cotton cultivation in Bangladesh.

Seed Certification Agency has been performing its role for full seed certification of four notified crops, (Rice, Wheat, Jute and Potato). Soil Resource Development Institute has established under the Ministry of Agriculture and Forest, which is responsible for detailed and semi-detailed soil survey, special survey of irrigation projects, explanatory soil guide and manual to ensure rational use of soil resource in the country. Among the other agencies, the Department of Agricultural Marketing (DAM) of the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of Bangladesh has undertaken an e-government initiative that would utilize the power of ICT to develop and disseminate critical Agricultural Market Information to farmers, traders, government, policy makers, development agencies and other stakeholders. Agriculture Information Service (AIS) have been working under the Ministry of Agriculture since its establishment in 1961. AIS have been playing a significant role in the agriculture sector providing mass media support through radio, television, documentary film and print media specially poster, folder, leaflet, booklet, newsletter, magazine, banner, festoon and so on. Bangladesh Applied Nutrition and Human Resource Development Board (BAN-HRDB) aims at developing human resources of various government and non-governmental organizations in food based nutrition through short training courses, advocacy meetings, symposium, workshops and mass media.