Annual Agri Stat 1

8/3/2019 Annual Agri Stat 1

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98 Rice almanac

General information• GNI per capita PPP$, 2000: 1,590

• Internal renewable water resources: 1,357

km3

• Incoming water flow: 1,000 km3

• Main food consumed: rice, wheat, oil and fat,

sugar and honey, pulses

• Rice consumption, 1999: 168.2 kg milled

rice per person per year

Production seasonPlanting Harvesting

Aus Apr-May Jul-Aug

Aman Apr-May Nov-Dec

Boro Dec-Feb Apr-May

Bangladesh lies in the northeastern part of

South Asia between 20° and 26° N

latitude and between 88° and 92° E

longitude. The country is bounded by India on the

west, north, and northeast; by Myanmar on the

southeast; and by the Bay of Bengal on the south.

Except for the hilly regions in the southeast

and some in the northeast, and patches of

highlands in the central and northwest regions,

Bangladesh for the most part consists of low, flat,

fertile land. About 230 rivers and their tributaries,

with a total length of about 24,140 km, flow

across the country down to the Bay of Bengal.

The alluvial soil is continuously enriched by

heavy silt deposited by the rivers throughfrequent flooding during the rainy season.

Bangladesh is in AEZ 3, characterized as

warm humid tropics, with a length of growing

period >230 d for most parts of the country. The

country enjoys a subtropical monsoon climate.

Summer, monsoon, and winter are the most

prominent of six distinct seasons. Winter, which

is pleasant, extends from November to February,

with minimum temperature ranging from 7 to 13

°C; in summer, maximum temperature ranges

from 24 to 41 °C.

The monsoon starts in June and lasts until

October. This period accounts for 80% of the total

annual rainfall, which varies from 1,200 to 2,500

mm. Maximum rainfall is recorded in the coastal

areas and in the northern Sylhet and Mymensing

districts, adjacent to Assam and Meghalaya,

India. Minimum rainfall is observed in thedistricts of Jessore, Kushtia, and Rajshahi in the

western parts of the country.

Bangladesh



Rice around the world 99

Recent developments in the rice sectorNearly 80% of the land area of the country has

been brought under crop cultivation. Only 15% of

the land area is under forests. In 1999-2000,

nearly 50% of the net cropped land was double

cropped, and 13% triple cropped. The cropping

intensity was 175% in the mid-1990s. Cropping

intensity is low, however, in the salinity-affectedcoastal areas and in the flood-prone depressed

basins.

Agriculture, the main occupation of the

people, employs 63% of the active labor force. It

contributed 30% to GDP in 2000, 57% of which

came from crop production. Rice accounts for

about 77% of total cropped area and two-thirds of

the value added in crop production. The emphasis

of government policy and research has been on

achieving food grain production self-sufficiency

with positive support for the distribution of

modern agricultural inputs such as chemical

fertilizers and irrigation water. This policy

support and major achievements of the public-

sector research and extension agencies have

enabled the country to achieve a record 5% per

year growth in cereal production from 1996 to

2000. The current development strategy focuses

on agricultural and crop diversification through

reallocation of resources away from the

production of rice, to be achieved through a

continuous increase in the productivity of land

and labor, and timely supply of high-quality seeds

and fertilizer.

Rice environmentsThe major rice ecosystems are upland (direct-

seeded premonsoon aus), irrigated (mainly dry-

season boro), rainfed lowland (mainly monsoon-season transplanted aman, 0–50 cm), medium-

deep stagnant water (50–100 cm), deepwater

(>100 cm), tidal saline, and tidal nonsaline.

The rice area has remained almost constant

since the independence of Bangladesh in 1971,

but there has been a major shift in rice cultiva-

tion. Over the last three decades, the area under

high-yielding boro rice has increased from 0.8 to

3.4 million ha, at the expense of the very low-

yielding and risky deepwater aman and upland

aus rice crops. Over this period, the area under

aus rice has declined from 3.4 to 1.3 million ha

and that of deepwater aman rice from 2.1 to 0.7

million ha. However, aman rice still covers 5.7

million ha. Recently, some aus rice land has been

diverted for the cultivation of high-value

vegetable and fruit crops.

Modern varieties (MVs) make up about 95%

of boro (irrigated) rice. Transplanted aman is

about 60% MVs, aus about 40%. Deepwater rice

is exclusively local varieties. The reallocation of

Bangladeshi farmer heads for his field.



100 Rice almanac

land from traditional varieties to MVs is the main

source of growth in rice production and yield. The

present average rice yield of about 3.4 t/ha

increased at 2.2%/yr from 1990 to 2000. Rice

production reached 36 million t in 2000, an

increase of 2.5%/yr over the last decade, and

5%/yr over the last five years in spite of a

devastating flood in 1998.

Production constraintsSustainability is always a problem wherever

intensified cropping systems are practiced and

crop residues are removed for fuel and feed. Cow

dung, a traditional source of fertilizer, is being

diverted to meet an acute shortage of fuel in rural

areas. The use of chemical fertilizers has

increased rapidly along with the spread of MVs,

from 11 kg NPK/ha in 1970 to 110 kg NPK/ha in

2000. With the removal of fertilizer subsidies in

the late 1980s, fertilizer use became unbalanced,

with too much use of N and too little P, in

response to an unfavorable trend in the relative

price of P and K, which are mostly imported.

Drought is a frequent problem, but

supplemental irrigation during the late monsoon

could alleviate it. Subsurface groundwater is

available almost everywhere in the country.

Irrigation by small-scale tube wells and low-lift

pumps began in the late 1970s when governmentcontrol over the procurement and distribution of

modern agricultural inputs was abolished. The

spread of tube wells has increased more rapidly

since the late 1980s when the importation of

agricultural machinery was liberalized. In 1999,

rice constituted nearly 80% of the total irrigated

area; 70% is irrigated with shallow tube wells and

power pumps owned and operated by farmers.

Overexploitation of groundwater is becoming an

environmental concern with adverse effects on

the supply of drinking water; there are suspected

links to arsenic-contaminated water.

Flooding occurs annually, but causes serious

damage only about once every 10 years. Normal

flooding is simply a part of the ecosystem and

helps to maintain soil quality. The flood-prone

areas are ideally suited for boro rice, as water is

available during the dry season and the cost of

irrigation is low.

Soils in coastal areas are affected by salinity.

Most soils are low in organic matter (many less

than 0.5%) and consequently low in N. Zinc and

S deficiencies are common; replacement amounts

of P and K are insufficient.

Marketing infrastructure is adequate for rice

but inadequate for other agricultural commodities,

especially perishables. The prices of both rice andnonrice crops fluctuate seasonally because of the

lack of access to international markets and

occasional good or poor harvests that affect the

demand-supply balance within the economy. The

price of rice is now too low to provide incentives

to farmers to sustain growth in production. When

food grain production approaches self-sufficiency,

farm-gate prices of rice go down quickly. A

policy to move stored grain routinely into market

channels and replace it with fresh stocks is

needed to stabilize rice prices.

The main challenge to food self-sufficiency

in Bangladesh is sustainability of production in

view of the many man-made, biotic, and abiotic

constraints. Population is a bigger problem than

food production inasmuch as food production is

basically keeping pace with population growth.

Population density is 900 persons/km2, one of the

highest in the world. Bangladesh has made

notable progress in population control since the

late 1980s. The 2001 population census reports agrowth rate of 1.6%/yr from 1991 to 2001

compared with 2.4%/yr for 1981-91.

Production opportunitiesRice research and development are effective, but

could be streamlined with more effective linkages

between research and extension.

Among the measures that would help

stabilize rice supply and encourage agricultural

growth are the spread of shorter-duration MVs to

intensify cropping; further development of

drainage and irrigation facilities; development of

varieties tolerant of salinity, drought, and

submergence to raise productivity in coastal and

flood-prone areas; and reducing the yield gap in

irrigated areas with the spread of knowledge-

intensive crop and natural resource management

practices.



Rice around the world 101

Share of calories and protein from rice, 1966-99

0

20

40

60

80

100

1966 1971 1976 1981 1986 1991 19961999

Percent

Calorie shareProtein share

0

100

200

300

400

500

Indices of rice production, area, and yield, 1966-2000

1966 1971 1976 1981 1986 1991 1996 2000

Index (1966 = 100)

ProductionAreaYield

Per capita production (paddy terms), 1966-99

0

100

200

300

400

500

1966 1971 1976 1981 1986 1991 19961999

Kg/capita

–100

–80

–60

–40

–20

0

20

40

60

80

100

Net trade status, 1966-99

1966 1971 1976 1981 1986 1991 19961999

Percent

Exports

Imports

Basic statistics, Bangladesh

1985 1990 1995 1998 1999 2000

Rice

Area harvested (ha) 10,398,170 10,435,340 9,951,700 10,115,630 10,708,000 10,700,000

Yield (t/ha) 2.2 2.6 2.7 2.9 3.2 3.3

Production (t) 22,556,288 26,777,904 26,398,000 29,708,000 34,426,800 35,820,800

Rice imports (t) 677,323 380,062 995,946 1,127,208 2,215,322 na

Paddy imports (t) 0 0 579,601 168,472 0 na

Rice exports (t) 0 0 58 105 170 na

Paddy exports (t) na

Others

Population, total (×103) 99,373 109,465 118,616 124,774 126,947 na

Population, agriculture (×103) 68,496 71,460 71,868 71,985 72,001 na

Agricultural area (×103 ha) 9,735 10,037 8,748 8,932 na na

Irrigated agricultural area (×103 ha) 2,073 2,936 3,429 3,844 na na

Total fer tilizer consumption (t) 540,682 933,022 1,194,097 1,171,000 na na

Tractors used in agric. (no.) 4,900 5,200 5,300 5,400 na na

Source: FAOSTAT online database.

Documents

Annual Agri Stat 1