My Country
Bangladesh often has to face natural calamities such as floods, droughts, cyclones,
tornadoes etc. This does in no way mean that Bangladesh is hopeless country and there
is no scope for its development. Bangladesh has many resources compared to other
rapidly developing countries in the world. It has got highly fertile plain lands
where farmers can grow crops throughout the country. It has got adequate trained
manpower almost in all the disciplines with the highest degrees from the advanced
countries. If with so many barriers and climatic as well as topographical problems
Japan, Korea, Singapore, and Malaysia can develop very rapidly, why Bangladesh
with so many resources and opportunities for development would be lagging behind?
The conscious citizens, educators, politicians have to find out the appropriate
answer. Will it be over ambitious for the common people of Bangladesh if they
expect from the administrators and policy makers a better planning and management
of resources in all aspects of agricultural and home life for the socio-economic
development of the country like other rapidly developing Asian countries? The
answer should be "Certainly Not".
Bangladesh, which became an independent sovereign country after a long 9 months war of
liberation, is my home land. I love and like my homeland very much. And I feel proud
of myself to be born in such a beautiful country. Bangladesh is a small South-Asian
country with a population of about 111.5 million in a total area of about 147,570 sq km.
It has a flat, fertile, deltaic land with a fringe of hills in the east and south-east
and luxuriant greenery all over. The economy of this country is predominantly agrarian,
with the agriculture accounting for about 35 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The natural environment is generally favourable for crop production, and there are
estimated to be about nine million hectares of land suited for cultivation. Over 80
per cent of the population of Bangladesh, or roughly 15 million households, live in
rural areas, and the agriculture sector employs around 62 per cent of the labour force.
The crop sub-sector alone accounts for 57 per cent of employment in the country,
where rice alone occupies more than three-quarters of the total cultivated land.
In spite of all these, Bangladesh often cannot produce enough food to feed her own
population. But WHY? It is, of course, a very difficult question to answer. There
are countries like Bangladesh on the globe which are developing very fast and some
are about to prove themselves not only as one of the developed countries but also as
super powers with so many natural barriers and adverse agro-environmental situations.
Almost two-thirds of the land area in Japan and the Republic of Korea, for example,
are covered by forests and hills. Moreover, agricultural land are highly fragmented
in both these countries. But one would be amazed and happy to see their agricultural
productivity. As rice is the staple food in Bangladesh which covers the majority
of the country s total cultivated land, if one compares its productivity s/he would
be able to understand its potentials for increasing the productivity. The average
productivity of rice per hectare in kgs in South Korea is 6556, Japan 6240, Spain 6198,
Italy 5607, China 3717, Bangladesh 2077 and India 1792. This figure clearly dictates
the tremendous potentials for increasing rice productivity in Bangladesh. It is quite
likely that there is every possibility to increase the rice productivity in Bangladesh
at least up to two-three folds only if management systems can be improved.
Please
WRITE here for your kind comments or suggestions.
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This Web page created and maintained by
Dr. M. Abul Kashem.
Update: 15 December 1997
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