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Agricultural Land Use and Land Susceptibility in Bangladesh: an Overview

Md. Hasibur Rahman
Research Fellow
Land Quality Assessment Project, Department of Soil, Water and Environment, Dhaka University and Executive Director, Environment and Agricultural Development Studies Centre, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Abstract/ Executive Summary:

Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated country in the world. With the growing population, and their increasing needs in various sectors, land use patterns are undergoing a qualitative change in which the areas under the net cropped land, and forest land is gradually shrinking. This country has humid tropical monsoon type of climate, warm and humid in the summer, dry and moderate cool in the winter with three meteorological seasons summer, monsoon and winter. With the temperature remaining above the biological zero all through the year, the annual rainfall ranges from 1500mm in the northwestern part to 5000mm in the northeast. It is the rainfall along with depth and duration of flooding that remains the critical factor for agriculture in this country. The critical aspects of rainfall in relation to the use of land for agriculture relate to the uncertainty of the start and parting of the monsoon as well as the occurrence of droughts. Bangladesh is really very lucky in having a hyper-thermic temperature regime where agricultural production is possible all over the year. More than 60% of the land area of Bangladesh is used under agricultural purposes against only 12 % for the world. Very few countries in the world employed such a high percentage of its land area under cultivation. This has been possible for the existence of the proverbially fertile soils on the few vast floodplains that are annually replenished by siltation during the flood. Two-thirds of the population in Bangladesh depends directly or indirectly upon agriculture, while nearly 25% of the gross national product comes from this sector. With scattered settlement patterns in Bangladesh homesteads, urban centers, industries, educational institutions and inhabited lands together occupy about 25% of the national area. Although forests are officially stated to occupy 15% of the land area of Bangladesh, the actual tree-covered area is reported to have fallen to only 6% at present. Remnants of tropical rainforest occurs in the hilly regions in the northeast; while the world's largest mangrove forest, the Sundarbans, with an area of 6,017 sq. km., occurs along the coast of the Bay of Bengal in the southwestern corner of the country. Land use has evolved through natural forces as well as human needs, cultivated land, forestland and settlements and homesteads are the major land use types in Bangladesh.

Keywords: Cropping Intensity, Population Density, Irrigated Land, Labor in Agriculture

Location: All over Bangladesh

Start Date:

End Date:

Program Area: Knowledge Management

Commodity: Land management

Objectives:

To determine the agricultural land use and land susceptibility in Bangladesh

Methodology:

Data from recent publications are presented in this paper, together with global organizational examples that illustrate the main advantages and disadvantages of globalization and its impact on firms in different countries. The agricultural land use and land susceptibility are evaluated and the paper highlights the main considerations that companies need to address when taking such a decision based on contemporary secondary sources .

Source of Information: Land Quality Assessment Project, Department of Soil, Water and Environment, Dhaka University, Dhaka, Bangladesh, published by Global Community

Article Link (Online Journal): http://globalcommunitywebnet.com/GlobalFiles/agriculturallanduse.pdf

Funding Source:

Total Budget (Tk.) :

Achievement/Findings:

Appropriate land use and adoption of suitable management technology can enhance and sustain high productivity and soil management, include crop and livestock management. Although no study has been undertaken as yet on the soil nutrients management of Bangladesh, the alarmingly low organic matter content in Bangladesh soils indicates that their resilience may be at the lower end. The growing demand of ever-increasing population of Bangladesh for growing more food, fuel, and timber has resulted in rapid oxidation of organic matter in soils, massive deforestation and as well as ecological imbalance. Land use changes in Bangladesh and related to land type degradation is impacting on the socioeconomic condition and on agricultural system of the country. At the present time the important environmental impacts of agriculture in Bangladesh is the gradual degradation of its land resources because of high population density of the country. Land degradation is taking place due to both natural causes as well as human induced causes. Natural hazards like sudden flash floods, tidal surges and droughty situations causes agricultural vulnerability. Significant, land degradation processes due to soil erosion, soil salinization, continuous water logging, river bank erosion, jhum cultivation, acidification, plough-pan formation, organic matter reduction, deforestation etc. are sometimes causes difficult to land use planning and appropriate land management practices. A good soil should have an organic matter content of more than 3.5 percent. But in Bangladesh, most soils have less than 1.7 percent and some soils have even less than 1% organic matter. It is believed that, the declining productivity of Bangladesh soils is the result of depletion of organic matter caused by high cropping intensity. In Bangladesh, crop residues are widely used as fuel and fodder and usually not returned to the soil. Even cow dung is widely used as fuel in rural areas. This results in a decrease in soil organic matter content. In Bangladesh, the average organic matter content of top soils have gone down, from about 2% to 1% over the past 20 years due to intensive cultivation which means a decline by 20-46%. Soil organic carbon levels tend to be stable or increase under irrigated rice double cropping sites. Organic matter content is generally lower in the upland sites of rice–wheat cropping. Soil organic carbon variability depends on the land class variability and also management conditions. Land-use management and soil organic carbon management is important phenomenon for agricultural land management and crop yielding.

Knowledge Management: Report/Proceedings