2.1 Trend in domestic production of food In a subsistence-oriented agrarian economy such as Bangladesh, domestic food production has an important role to play in the quest for food security. Major items in the food basket in Bangladesh are rice, wheat, pulses, potato, vegetables and fish. These food items account for almost 85 percent of the total calorie and protein intake. Rice and wheat alone contribute to 74 percent and 57 percent of the total per capita calorie and protein intake respectively (BBS 2003).
Rice occupies 71 percent of the gross cropped area and accounts for 94 percent of the food grain production. Most farmers with access to irrigation facilities grow two rice crops during the year. The net cultivated area in Bangladesh is about 8.0 million ha, but the total cropped area of rice is about 11.0 million ha; such is the importance of rice in agriculture in Bangladesh. The long-term trend in the production of rice vis-à-vis the population growth can be seen. Rice production declined in absolute terms immediately after the Independence in 1971 due to the destruction of infrastructure by the civil war and the consecutive natural disasters. Indeed, the country faced severe food insecurity and famine in 1974-75 due to the shortfall in domestic production caused by floods, the government’s incapacity to import, and mismanagement in distribution, which led to a skyrocketing of rice prices (Alamgir 1980; Sen 1982; Sobhan 1979). However, the growth of cereal production resumed from 1976 and had almost an unhindered growth since then (except for a short period in the early 1990s). The growth in rice production kept pace with population growth in the 1980s, and surpassed population growth by a significant margin in the 1990s.
The respectable growth in rice production was propelled by adoption of high-yielding modern varieties of rice, facilitated by an expansion of irrigation infrastructure. Almost 56% of the cultivated land now has access to irrigation facilities, developed mostly by private investment on small-scale shallow tubewells and power pumps (Hossain, 2003). The adoption of modern rice varieties has reached 70% of rice cropped area. Only in the deep-flooded areas in the depressed basins, and in the salinity-affected coastal areas farmers still grow low-yielding traditional varieties. Almost 90% of the growth in rice production came from the increase in yields made possible by the technological progress in rice cultivation.
The respectable growth in rice production was propelled by adoption of high-yielding modern varieties of rice, facilitated by an expansion of irrigation infrastructure. Almost 56% of the cultivated land now has access to irrigation facilities, developed mostly by private investment on small-scale shallow tubewells and power pumps (Hossain, 2003). The adoption of modern rice varieties has reached 70% of rice cropped area. Only in the deep-flooded areas in the depressed basins, and in the salinity-affected coastal areas farmers still grow low-yielding traditional varieties.
Almost 90% of the growth in rice production came from the increase in yields made possible by the technological progress in rice cultivation.
Bangladesh does not have favorable agro-climatic environments for growing wheat because of the short and mild winter season and heavy soils. Wheat is grown mostly in the north-western region of the country which has a relatively longer winter period. Till the late 1960s wheat was an unimportant crop occupying less than one percent of the cropped area. The availability of high-yielding modern varieties in the late 1960s, however, induced farmers to grow more wheat. Hence, the area under wheat expanded exponentially from 126,000 ha in 1976 to 676,000 ha in 1985, while the production increased from 117,000 tons to 1.46 million tons. The expansion was halted over the next decade but picked up again since 1996 due to a favorable trend in the price of wheat relative to rice. Over the last three decades, wheat production increased at a rate of 10% per year but wheat still accounts for only 7% of the total cereal production.
In the context of food security, an important point to note is that cereal production has become more resilient to natural disasters over time because of the dramatic change in the seasonal composition of production. The area under the early-monsoon low-yielding aus rice (April to July) has been reduced from 3.5 to 1.2 million ha; so the loss of production from the late arrival of the monsoon rains is now substantially lower than in the pre-green revolution period. Similarly, the area under the direct-seeded deep-water Aman rice (March- November) has been reduced from 2.2 to 0.7 million ha, substantially reducing the crop losses from floods. In the deeply flooded area farmers now keep the land fallow during the monsoon season, and grow high-yielding boro rice crop (January to June) with irrigation. The boro rice area has expanded from 0.5 million ha in the early 1970s to nearly 4.0 million ha by 2003. The boro rice together with wheat now brings over half of the cereal production during the March to June period; their share of the total cereal harvest was less than 10% in the early 1970s. The farmers can now recover the loss from the traditional monsoon season aman crop within six months, while earlier they had to wait for a year to recover the losses. This change in the seasonal composition of production also had a smoothening effect on the seasonal variation in rice prices, and the ability of the country to cope with disastrous floods such as in 1988 and 1998.
However, the green revolution in cereal production has not been an unmixed blessing. The rapid expansion in the area of boro rice and wheat was achieved partly through the reduction of area and production of pulses and oilseeds. These two crops were important sources of protein and micronutrients, particularly for the poor. The production of sugarcane and fruits has also remained stagnant. Among other food crops, the growth was respectable only for potatoes and vegetables, because of higher productivity and profitability compared to rice and wheat.
The fisheries sub-sector contributes 5.5% to the gross domestic product. It provides employment to more than 700 thousand people. Bangladesh has substantial biological and physical resource base for fish production. In terms of nutrition, fish also occupies a significant position in the dietary habits of people. The growth in fish production was sluggish in the 1970s. The growth picked up in the 1980s, and was very rapid (7% per year) in the 1990s. The growth in the production of meat and milk has been unsatisfactory, while their demand has been growing fast.