WELCOME Agriculture Policy and Food Security: A Bangladesh Perspective

Overview: Bangladesh Agriculture About 84% of the total population live in rural areas Agriculture contributes about 32% to the country's GDP About 23% of which is contributed by the crop sector alone About 63% of the labor force is employed in agriculture About 57% being employed in the crop sector

Overview: Bangladesh Agriculture

Highlights: Bangladesh Agriculture Policy Crop Production Policy Seeds Policy Fertilizers Policy Pest Management Policy Agricultural Mechanization Agriculture Research Agriculture Extension Agriculture Marketing

Highlights: Bangladesh Agriculture Policy…. Land Use Agricultural Education and Training Agriculture Credit Government Support for Agricultural Production and Contingency Plan Food-based Nutrition Environmental Protection in Agriculture Women in Agriculture Reliable Database

Achieving food security requires adequate food availability, access, and use. Agriculture plays a key role in providing: (1) food availability globally (and nationally and locally in some agriculture-based countries) (2) an important source of income to purchase food and (3) foods with high nutritional status. Link between Agriculture and food security

Food Security Status The WFP estimates that an average food gap of nearly 1 million metric tons since Domestic food grain requirement in 2004 is 25.7 million metric tons and gap was 1 million metric ton Almost every year rural areas in Bangladesh are struck by a near famine situation before the annual harvest (WFP). The 1998 floods in Bangladesh, “the flood of the Century” covered more than two thirds of the country and caused 2.04 million metric tons of rice crop losses

Food Security Status… Only 4.14 percent of net cultivable land remains as current fallow which means that there is hardly any scope for increasing cultivable land to increase rice production.

Key Issues Almost every year rural areas in Bangladesh are struck by a near famine situation before the annual harvest (during lean period). Natural calamities like river erosion, flood and cyclone just add to worsen such food crisis (WFP, 2005). Minimize Post harvest losses to increase production Increase rice production through introducing super high yielding variety and to minimize post harvest losses. Employment creation during lean period

Key Issues In China, rapid expansion of hybrid rice has enabled rice production to increase sustainability from 128 million tons in 1975 to 189 million tons in Subsequently, the rice harvested area in the country decreased from 36 million hectares in 1975 to only 30 million in 2000, with the saved area used for diversified activities to increase farmers’ incomes. In Korea by the spreading of Rice Processing Center, it has reduced the cost of rice post-harvest operations by 31.8%

Table: Estimated Post harvest Rice Losses in Southeast Asia Activity ESTIMATED RANGE OF LOSS (PERCENT) MinimumMaximum Harvesting13 Handling27 Threshing26 Drying15 Storage26 Transport210 Total1037

Conclusion The following issues to be focused/included in Agriculture Policy: 1. Set up linkage between on-farm and off-farm activities 2. Disaster preparedness for Agriculture 3. Post harvest technologies to be encouraged to minimize crop losses 4. Replacement of the present varieties by hybrid and super high yielding varieties.

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