CASH CROP OF BANGLADESH:

Jute: Jute is the major fibre crop of the country. Despite the relative decline in
importance of jute in agriculture, potential still exists for the fibre to increase its
contribution to the economy through productivity increases and diversification.
The share of raw jute and jute goods in the total exports of the country has been
declining but still remains significant. In this situation, special measures will be
taken during the Plan period to encourage farmers to further intensify jute
production in order to satisfy domestic and export demand. To enable jute to
compete with synthetics, emphasis will be given to related agricultural and
technological research efforts. The raw jute production is projected to go up to
7.24 million bales in 2001/2002 as against 4.87 million bales in 1996/97 through
per hectare yield increase, availability of better quality seeds, and improved
provision of extension and credit support to growers.

Tea: Tea is one of the most dynamic agro-based, labour intensive, export oriented
industries of Bangladesh. It plays a vital role in the national economy in both
export earnings as well as in employment generation. Plantation and production of
processed tea are the two main activities in the private sector. In the public
sector, green leaf production was promoted through development projects
implemented by the Bangladesh Tea Board. With the introduction of high yielding
varieties, quality planting materials, timely application of production inputs and
installation of modern machinery, tea has undergone further improvement and
enabled Bangladesh to compete more effectively with other exporting countries.
Increased production is expected to come from higher yields and by reducing tea
vacancies now existing in the gardens.

Tobacco: Tobacco is one of the important cash crops of the country. The crop
grows well in sandy, well aerated, well drained soils and cool climate. Hence, it is
grown as a Rabi crop and most of the area is concentrated in the greater districts
of Kushtia and Rangpur. Due efforts to expand tobacco cultivation since 1973/74
through support from big cigarette manufacturing firms self-sufficiency in
tobacco production was achieved by 1980/81. However, recognizing tobacco's
adverse effects on health, policies will be adopted to limit its production by the
gradual reduction of cropped area in favour of cotton and pulses. The production of
tobacco has been projected to be 0.04 million Mt by the terminal year of the Fifth
Plan.

Cotton: Cotton played a very important role in improving the socio-economic

conditions of the farmers during the previous Plan period. The production has gone
up from 45,800 bales in 1983/84 to about 1,00,000 bales in 1996/97. The yield of
seed cotton per hectare has reached a reasonably high level; yet the yield of
cotton in the country is low compared to world standards. The major constraints to
increased production are inadequate ginning capacity and seed multiplication
programme, insufficient expertise and material resources, inefficient system of
management, and ineffective extension and marketing organization. Textile mills
should encourage commercial plantation through cooperatives in suitable cotton
belts. During the Plan period, efforts will be made to provide loans to farmers to
ensure supply of improved seeds, fertilizers, plant protection measures, irrigation
and credit facilities to the growers along with the practicing of improved
technologies in the cotton fields. Cotton production has been projected to be 0.26
million bales by the terminal year of the Fifth Plan as against 0.10 million bales in
1996/97.

Sugar cane: Sugar is the country's most important agro-industry and sugar cane is
one of the important cash crops. Sugar cane is grown as a 12-15 month crop in a
two year rotation with Aus rice crop during the monsoon season followed in the dry
months by oilseeds, wheat or vegetables. Sugar cane yields in the country are low
by world standards and the quality is poor. The average yield of sugar cane is about
6.1 Mt per hectare with a sugar recovery rate of 8.10 percent. Sugar cane is grown
on about 0.18 million hectares of land. Of this, about 0.095 million hectares are in
the sugar mill zone areas and the rest in the non-mill zone areas which produce
sugar cane mostly for making gur consumed by the rural people. Research efforts
will be strengthened to raise yield per hectare through varietal improvement,
better management of water resources, fertilizers and other inputs, improved
cropping systems and development of a sugar cane delivery system from farms to
mills. Considering the past consumption trend, milling capacity and possible growth
rate of production, sugar cane production is projected to be 12.37 million Mt in the
terminal year of the Fifth Plan as against the benchmark production of 8.10 million
Mt.

FOOD CROP IN BANGLADESH:

In Bangladesh, major food crops are- rice (73.94%), wheat (4.45%), rape
and mustard (3.08%), lentil (1.54%), chicklling vetch (1.25%), potato (1.13%),
sugarcane (1.12%), and chilli (1.05%) are grown on 1 percent or more of the crop
acreage (14.61 million ha) and may be considered as major crops.

Rice dominates the cropping pattern throughout Bangladesh. It has been broadly
divided into three classes viz, aman (transplanted and broadcast varieties), boro,
and aush according to the season in which they are harvested, namely, in
December-January, March-May and July-August respectively. Again, of these
varieties transplanted aman is the most important and covers about 46.30% of the
paddy area, followed by boro (26.85%), aus (17.59%) and broadcast aman (9.26%).
Transplanted aman is grown almost everywhere in Bangladesh, while broadcast
aman is mostly grown in the low-lying areas of the south and northeast. Boro is
grown to a certain extent in every district, especially in the irrigated part, while
aus is a well scattered crop.

Next to rice, wheat is the most important crop in Bangladesh. It is grown mainly in
the drier parts of the north and is cultivated only as a winter crop. Jute leads the
country's list of export crops but is ranked third in terms of area cultivated. It is
confined mainly to the low-lying areas of the Brahmaputra-Jamuna and Padma
floodplains.

Mustard (including rape) is the fourth important crop. It is also grown mainly in the
low-lying areas of Brahmaputra-Jamuna and Meghna floodplains.

Masur (lentil) and khesari (chickling vetch) are the two important varieties of
pulses produced in Bangladesh. Masur is mainly grown in the Gangetic delta while
khesari is a well-scattered crop in the islands and chars (any accretion in the
riverbed, usually sandy islands).
Potato is the most important of the winter vegetables and is widely grown. At
present potato is a most important crop to Munshiganj, Comilla, Rajshahi, Rangpur,
Dinajpur, Bogra, Joypurhat and Nilphamari districts. Sugarcane is the eighth
important crop the country. It grows best in Rajshahi, Natore, and Chuadanga
districts.

Although chilli is produced to a certain extent in every district of the country, the
cultivation is mainly concentrated in the southern districts including Bogra,
Sirajganj and Pabna.

Pulse (dal) dried edible seeds of some cultivated annual legumes, such as peas,
beans, lentils, etc. The pulses contain high amount of protein (20-25%); due to
some unusually high lysine content comparable to animal proteins and having less
commercial price, the pulses are sometimes called as poor man's meat. Along with
proteins, pulses also supply a good proportion of carbohydrate, fats and minerals.

CHARACTERISTICS OF AGRICULTURE IN BANGLADESH

The economy of Bangladesh although is dominated by agriculture, it is not as

developed as in other in other advanced countries. It is true that Bangladesh still
lags far behind in respect of crops production. Agricultural productivity could not
be raised due to small investment in agricultural lands. The main features of
Bangladesh agriculture is narrated below

1. Primitive Type of Cultivation: The cultivators are still using almost all the age
old appliances like ploughs, yokes, harrows, weak bulls etc. for cultivation of their
land which were used during the ancient time. The development countries brought
revolutionary changes in agriculture by using modern and scientific equipment and
other inputs like power tillers/ tractors, pesticides, fertilizer etc. Japan, the
Philippines, South Korea and the United States of America (USA) are more
advanced in this regard. Yield per acre in these countries is much higher than that
of ours.

2. Diminishing Fertility of the Soil: Like all other elements, the soil has also a
definite limit of productivity or productive capacity. It is, therefore, necessary to
raise the fertility of land for increasing productive capacity by applying manures
suitable for environment and this can be done by mixing soil. Since the Bangladeshi
cultivators are inexperienced in this regard, land of the rural villages started
diminishing its fertility.

3. Small Holding of Land: Due to increased population, joint families are gradually
disappearing and this is responsible for making the large holding smaller.
Cultivation in such smallholdings is not possible even by wooden plough.

4. Landless Cultivators: The rural poor people are day by day becoming landless
due to economic pressure. These landless people for their subsistence cultivate
lands of the village mahajans on crop sharing basis. For want of ownership of land,
they do not feel interested to properly invest; even feel unwilling to render their
physical labor on this land. For this reason, good harvest is not possible.

5. Decreasing per capital Cultivable Land: Cultivable land is being gradually

reduced for distribution of limited land among the increasing population of the
country. It is learnt from the meeting of the Parliamentary Committee of the
Ministry of Agriculture held in September, 2003 that 82,900 hectares (i.e., about
1 percent) land is decreased per annum. Total cropped acreage is shrinking from
35.07 million acres in 2001-02 to 33.92 million acres in 2006-07.

6. Cultivation for Livelihood: Most of the farmers of Bangladesh produce crops

for livelihood only; they had little interest for crop production on commercial basis.
The commercial attitude for production of crops has not yet been popular.

7. Dependence on Nature: Agriculture in Bangladesh depends on nature.

Agricultural crop production is seriously hampered every year by the vagaries of
nature. There is a common word that agriculture in Bangladesh is a gamble in the
monsoons. But recently scientific method of cultivation has been introduced in
agriculture. Power tillers, irrigation technology, bio and chemical fertilizer,
insecticides etc. have also been widely used. As a result crop production varies
considerably.

8. Fallow Land: Vast land of the eastern region especially in the districts of
Mymensingh, Netrokona, Kishorganj, sylhet, Sunamganj etc. is still lying fallow and
as such we are getting no yield from those lands. In some cases these are not even
possible to take under agriculture or pisi-culture. This is essential to recover these
lands and bring under cultivation.

9. Uneven Land: Natural composition of the land of eastern 3 zone like that of
Mymensingh, Sylhet, Chittagong and Dhaka is slightly uneven and for this reason
most of these land cannot be brought under irrigation facilities. The uneven land
also cannot hold or contain water and therefore, per acre yield of such lands is less
than that of plain ones.

10. Lack of Marketing of Agricultural Produce: Agricultural product needs

extensive marketing program. It has not yet been possible to take extensive
measures for making agriculture an industry in villages.

11. Intensive Subsistence Farming with Rice Dominant

12. Intensive Subsistence Livestock and Crop Farming