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National Agriculture Policy

Crop Production Policy :
Although the intensification of food grain production, especially rice-based production system is apparently profitable from the farmers’ point of view, this approach has appeared to be harmful in protecting the land productivity. At present, rice covers about 75 percent of the cultivated land in Bangladesh. Area coverage by other crops are as follows: pulses (4.64%), wheat (3.92%), oilseeds (3.77%), jute (3.71%), sugarcane (1.23%), potato (1.11%), fruits (0.84%) and vegetables (1.39%). The production system dominated by a single crop (i.e. rice) is neither scientific nor acceptable from the economic point of view. It is, therefore, necessary to increase the cultivation and production of other crops. However, considering the increasing demand for food grains and with a view to ensuring food security, production of rice will continue to get priority in the food grain production programs. In order to increase rice production, supportive programs will be taken to raise per hectare yield through the use of modern technology and improved cultural practices along with the increased use of HYV seeds.

In Bangladesh, only 4.14 percent of net cultivable land remains as current fallow which means that there is hardly any scope for increasing cultivable land. Currently, cropping intensity is around 185 percent. Thus, the only possible option for increasing agricultural production is to increase both the cropping intensity and yields simultaneously. In this respect, policies adopted by the government are to:

• take supportive programs for inter-cropping in a field instead of single cropping; and
• take appropriate measures in reducing the gap between potential yield and farmers’ realized yield of different crops to raise the present level of production significantly.

Crop diversification is one of the major component of crop production policy. For the overall development of crop sector, special emphasis will be given to crop diversification program under the crop production policy. The government policies in this respect are as follows:

• Area under wheat has meanwhile reached at 0.8 million hectare. Given the potential for expanding wheat acreage, efforts will continue to encourage farmers to grow more wheat.
• The production of maize has shown prospective results in last two years. Maize has also gained popularity as human food side by side with the poultry feed. Public sector procurement of maize has been introduced like rice and wheat in order to encourage farmers in maize cultivation. The efforts for increasing area and production of maize will be strengthened.
• The program for increasing area and production of other crops, e.g., potato, pulses, oilseeds, vegetables, fruits and spices will gradually be extended under the crop diversification program.
• Production of different cash crops including jute, cotton will be increased and efforts will be made to expand their multiple uses.
• Special development programs will be taken with a view to increasing production of potential crops suitable for the coastal areas and the hill tracts.

As a matter of fact, increased crop production depends on good quality seeds, efficient irrigation management, use of balanced fertilizers and availability of credit in time. In accordance with the free market economy, the important task of agricultural input distribution has largely been shifted to the private sector. Despite its beneficial effects in general, the privatization process has given rise to considerable inefficiency in some cases, such as, marketing and distribution of minor irrigation equipment and fertilizers. It is alleged that the privatization process has also been accompanied by non-availability, price rise, smuggling and quality degradation of fertilizers. Under this situation the government will seek to:

• establish and consolidate the distribution system for irrigation equipment, fertilizers, seeds and credit in the light of farmers’ need; and
• ensure responsibility and accountability of the private sector through strengthening of the relevant legal framework and its enforcement.

The production of crops, especially aman crop is heavily damaged every year due to the inadequate soil moisture regime prevailing in drought affected areas. To combat this situation government has adopted the following policies:

• Supplementary irrigation will be ensured in severe and extremely severe drought affected areas.
• Location specific (including hill tracts) suitable crops will be identified with respect to technological and economic parameters and appropriate strategies will be pursued for cultivating those crops.
• Measures will be taken to minimize post-harvest losses by introducing appropriate technologies.

Since agricultural production is very expensive and risky, often it is not possible for the farmers to grow crops profitably at the individual level due to the shortage of required labor and capital. Therefore, government will encourage the formation of self-motivated cooperatives for producing and marketing agricultural commodities which should ideally succeed in mobilizing adequate resources (including labor and capital) for more production, income and equity.