Agricultural Transformation in Bangladesh:Extent, Drivers and Implications (original) (raw)

Role of Agriculture in Bangladesh Economy: Uncovering the Problems and Challenges

Although modern economy is largely dependent on industrialization, agriculture remains the lifeblood for the economy of Bangladesh. Agriculture has been functioning in Bangladesh since long as a catalyst for sustainable development and growth of the country. Over time, the share of agriculture in GDP has significantly declined in Bangladesh but the contribution of agriculture to non-agricultural growth has maintained an upward trend. Thus, agricultural sector remains an irreplaceable driving force for economic growth of the country. Based on secondary data, the study intends to describe the role of agriculture in the economy of Bangladesh with a focus on problems and challenges of the sector. The main reason behind the loss of agricultural land in Bangladesh is the growth of rural housing followed by urbanization and industrialization. Residences of increasing population of the country are expanding at the cost of agricultural land. Despite many prospects of agriculture sector, some challenges are still present there. In order to address the challenges, a number of collaborative and coordinated steps should be initiated. As the food security is a major concern for Bangladesh, necessary steps should be taken to conserve agricultural land from its shifting to non-agricultural utilization.

AGRICULTURE SECTOR: ISSUES AND PROSPECTS1

Agriculture sector plays a critical role in Pakistan's economy through a variety of channels. Almost 20 percent of national income and 43 percent of total employment are generated in this very sector. For instance, quite a portion of the country's manufactured exports are dependent on raw materials such as cotton and hides that are part of the agriculture sector, while supply shortages and market disruptions in farm products do push up inflationary pressures. Overall poverty incidence can be reduced only if rural incomes of the poor are raised from their current levels. In other words, the gyrations in macro-economic and micro-economic transactions can be attributed to a large extent to the health of agriculture sector. Wheat consumer and producer prices influence the wage-setting process in the urban areas and are politically sensitive. Though there is an avowed policy of liberalization of prices in place, every successive government has pursued an active interventionist policy in fixing minimum guaranteed price, procuring a large proportion of marketable surplus through public-sector agencies, storing and releasing the wheat to millers and monitoring retail prices. Despite the popular lamentations about the neglect of agriculture in the country, the performance of the sector has been simply impressive. Those who point to the share of agriculture declining from 50 percent at the time of independence to 20 percent currently as an indicator of poor performance of agriculture are mistaken. In the US less than five percent labor force produces food, fibres and other agriculture produce for 300 million and the rest of the world.

Bangladesh agriculture: Growth, stability and poverty alleviation

Journal of International Development, 1991

The challenges facing Bangladesh are: (a) how to accelerate agricultural growth through labour-intensive technological progress and enlarged access to inputs, credits and assets on the part of the poor farmers, and (b) to prevent acute short-term food deprivations by achieving a reasonable degree of stability of food supplies and prices. In order to make a dent on rural poverty the expansion of non-farm rural employment in trade, services and rural industries and innovative public employment projects, as well as public food distribution schemes, targeted towards the poorest, are needed.

IJERT-Declining Share Of Agriculture Sector In Gdp: A Serious Concern

International Journal of Engineering Research and Technology (IJERT), 2012

https://www.ijert.org/declining-share-of-agriculture-sector-in-gdp-a-serious-concern https://www.ijert.org/research/declining-share-of-agriculture-sector-in-gdp-a-serious-concern-IJERTV1IS8088.pdf Undoubtedly! Indian agriculture has been a way of life and continues to be the single most important livelihood of the masses. The sector occupies almost 43 percent of India's geographical area. But unfortunately, inspite of being the most important sector of the country in the terms of employment generation, its percentage share has been declining gradually in the country's GDP with the passing of years which is a cause of serious concern. Current agricultural practices are neither economically nor environmentally sustainable and India's yields for many agricultural commodities are low. The present paper analyzes the problem of declining share of agricultural sector in country's GDP, its extent and causes. The paper also suggests various ways to improve the agricultural productivity. The agriculture sector of the country had a glorious past. At the time of Aryans and Vedic period, Indian agriculture was very much advanced. The system of agricultural production

Agriculture: Under the Five year Plans and Road Ahead

India has made a tremendous growth on the agriculture after independence. This was a result of numerousprograms implemented to increase the productivity during five year plans. Agriculture is the true heartbeat of our economy as it contributes into the major part ofIndia's GDP.Productivity increased after independence but has been declining over last few years.The decline in productivity can be attributed to number of factors such as illiteracy, inadequate marketing of agricultural products, insufficient finance and wrong methods of cultivation. In addition to above mentioned reasons, the average size of the farms is very small which in turn has resulted in low productivity. Also the sector has not adopted modern technology and agricultural practices which has restricted the productivity. Insufficient irrigation facilities has made farmers dependent on rainfall, which is however very unpredictable. The Indian government must take serious steps to boost the agricultural sector as over 70% of rural households depend on agriculture as their principal means of livelihood. Agriculture alongwith fisheries and forestry is one of the largest contributor to GDP.In this study we have made an effort to highlight the performance of agriculture during five year plans and also projects undertaken to increase the productivity. We have also discussed the main problems encountered to achieve the planned target and at last we are trying to have a focus on the current steps undertaken under 12 th five year plan. Finally some measures to improve the productivity have been suggested.

Contribution of the agriculture sector to the national economy

The Journal of Agriculture and Environment, 2015

Agriculture is the mainstay of the majority of Nepalese people which provides employment, foods and shelter. However, the investment in agriculture is not encouraging, received only about 3 percent of total government outlays from 2002 to 2014. In the study, Gross Domestic Product was regressed with Domestic Savings, Government Expenditure on Agriculture and Foreign Direct Investment on Agriculture with the data from FY 2002/03 to 2014/15. Regression reveals the degree of association among these variables is significant at 5 % level of significance (R=0.991, P=0.005<0.05). The analysis showed that the contribution of Government Expenditure on Agriculture to Gross Domestic Product was found significant whereas the Domestic Savings and Foreign Direct Investment on Agriculture were found insignificant. The compound annual growth rate of Government’s expenditure was found slightly lower than that of budget allocated to the Ministry of Agricultural Development. In sum, the study concluded

Share of Agriculture on Employment, Income and Trade

Food and Agri Economics Review

Nepal is a country having diverse range of agricultural life. Agriculture is a main source of income and employment. This paper assesses the current scenario and the trend of share of agriculture on employment, income and trade in Nepal. Secondary data from various sources were used for study. Statistical techniques including descriptive statistics and trend analysis was used. Share of agriculture on employment and income is decreasing and import of agricultural commodities is drastically heavy than the export of such products. The proportion of population engaged in agriculture has shown a sharp decline from 82.33% in 1991 to 64.38% in 2019. Agriculture made up 48.80 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), in 1990 where share has been gradually decreasing and was a mere 23.13 percent in 2020. In 2019/20, total merchandise exports and imports stood at Rs. 97.71 billion and Rs. 1196.80 billion respectively where trade deficit stood at Rs. 1099.09 billion which is 27.9 percent of...