Bangladesh is an agricultural country. It's economy is based on agriculture. But Crop agriculture in Bangladesh is constrained by a number of challenges every year. Major challenges include:
1) Overpopulation
2) Loss of Agricultural Land
3) Erosion of Riverbanks
4) Degradation of Natural Resources
5) Global warming and climate change
6) Decreasing human resource
7) Low Market Price
9) Monocropping
8) Insufficient Investment in Research
Overpopulation: Annual population growth has consumed all the gains in agricultural production. As a result, the standard of living of the people decreases and the number of people below the poverty line increases. Therefore, population control should be regarded as the most important development agenda and to improve agricultural productivity.
Loss of Agricultural Land: About 100000 hectares of productive agricultural land is lost annually through non-agricultural use namely roads, houses and other "development" projects. This is similar to the destruction of the most important natural resources in agriculture and if not explored now, the country will be left with a small and fertile land in the near future. Therefore, an immediate declaration of land policy is needed to save the main arable land from further depletion.
Erosion of Riverbanks: About a million people are affected by this disaster every year who lose everything - shelter, other buildings that make them almost beggars. Some of them hide in urban slums while others try to live in “char” and earn livelihood by fishing from the riverbeds from time to time. Immediate action should be taken to reduce river erosion and all research and expansion projects should be initiated to improve charlands production.
Degradation of Natural Resources: Degradation of natural resources has caused almost irreparable loss to agricultural production. These include soil erosion, soil salinity, sand immersion, flooding, deforestation, depletion of soil organisms, uneven fertilization, depletion of fish species etc. Intensive research and expansion programs should be initiated immediately with the help of government policy to curb this devastation and to ensure proper crop production.
Global warming and climate change: Significant changes have taken place in the world's climate. The frequency of natural disasters such as floods, cyclones, droughts etc. has increased. All of this has a profound effect on crop production in the country. Proper research and policy planning is needed to reorganize our crop calendar and introduce a risk management strategy.
Decreasing human resource: About 400 highly trained and experienced scientists have moved to developed countries as a result of limited employment opportunities through promotions, lack of higher education and training and retirement at 57 years of age. The government must therefore ensure:
(i) Many opportunities for promotion to the next level
(ii) Retirement age 62 years
(iii) Higher salary and service benefits
(iv) Higher education and training
(v) Provision of additional benefits for extraordinary work.
Such measures are expected to decrease the migration of scientists.
Low Market Price: Farmers do not get the right price for their produce; the middle ones get the lion's share. To ensure the fair value of produce for farmers, there is a need to:
(i) Develop infrastructure and services in market areas.
(ii) The improvement of the marketing plan and marketing channels.
(iii) Alleviating the problems faced by producers, traders and consumers.
(iv) The construction of facilities to facilitate the smooth running of agribusiness and value addition.
(v) A training program for farmers to transform subsistence agriculture into commercial agriculture.
Monocropping: More than 60% of the land is cultivated by smallholder farmers. They have introduced rice farming as a measure of food security for their families. The rice area has been growing at the expense of all other crops. The practice is the opposite in China. Monoculture destroys the fertility and balance of soil structure and the balance of healthy human food. The practice of growing single rice should be gradually reversed with the development of research strategy, financial support and farmer incentives.
Insufficient Investment in Research: Investment in agricultural research in Bangladesh now stands at only 0.20 GDP (Z. Karim, 1997) although agriculture contributes 19.10% of GDP and employs 50.28% of the workforce (BBS, 2008). The low investment has led to the inefficiency of the National Agricultural Research System (NARS). The scope of promotion and training of potential scientists in various fields is also limited due to funding constraints.
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