Bangladesh is plagued by a monsoon season every year, which floods about one-third of the nations farmlands, hindering their ability to economic expansion. Bangladesh is one of the most poverty stricken countries in the world,
with over one-third of its population living below the poverty line. They also have an unemployment rate of nearly forty percent. With an economy based on agricultural products and textiles, Bangladesh cannot produce enough to feed its overpopulated masses. Population is also a hindrance to the economic growth and the problem of hunger. Bangladesh has a population of 141,340,476 people, in an area slightly smaller than the state of Iowa. The topography of Bangladesh has caused it to be one of the poorest nations. The natural recourses that a country possesses, is a significant reason what happened in the second half of the twentieth century.
Nations possessing useful and desired resources in the second half of the twentieth century have seen a great increase in economic growth and power. With the dependence of new technology on fossil fuels, the Middle East as well as many other areas of the globe has been blessed with great sources of income. Bangladesh has been less fortunate, and during half the year their fields are covered by water. It is uncontrollable factors like these that make those who got rich in the twentieth century.
World hunger had been a major issue in the last half of the twentieth century because there are so many countries that do not have enough food, while there are many others who have excess. The problem stems from an increasing divide between wealthy nations and poor ones. In many of the western nations were poverty is low, there is a surplus of food available, however, in poor nations there tends to be little food available to the general public. Many times in these very poor countries there tends to be a select few who live in luxury while the general public gets little food or medicine. In a time when the world can produce enough food for people in all nations, it is a shame that there are still so many countries with so many people who are starving.
It is undeniable that Bangladesh has made remarkable progress in agriculture specially in cereal production in post independent era. Population of Bangladesh was 75 million just after the liberation and production of food was 10 million tons with a deficit of 3 million tons.
The half-fed farmers can claim the lion's share of this success. But beside the successes there are some identified and conventional problems in the agriculture sector of Bangladesh. Some new and strategic problems in agriculture are emerging parallely alongside the conventional and century old ones. It is a matter of regret that these new problem fail to attract the attention of the policy makers.
Use of appropriate technology can play an excellent role in the extension of agriculture in Bangladesh. Use of drum-seeder is gaining popularity as an appropriate technology in different countries including Vietnam. Drum-seeder was first innovated at the International Rice Research Institute in Manila, the capital of the Philippines. Production of rice has increased enormously in Vietnam using drum-seeder successfully. There is a huge potentiality of producing more rice in Bangladesh too using drum-seeder. Production of rice in Bangladesh can at least be increased by 2.5-3 million tons valued at Taka 20,000 million if successful use of drum-seeder is ensured keeping other factors unchanged. Again Taka 20,000 million can be fetched by saving Taka 2000 per hectare.
Thus Bangladesh can accrue Taka 40,000 million yearly from internal source ensuring use of drum-seeder. For this, all the rice farming of Bangladesh should be brought under drum-seeder cultivation at the earliest possible time. At the same time use of urea can be controlled by using leaf-colour-chart and gooti urea. Then demand of urea could be met by the production of the urea factories of the country. There will be no need of importing urea from abroad rather it could be exported to some extent.
In April and May the farmers start to plant their rice crops during the normal time of year. They normally harvest these crops in June and July. But when there is a flood in June and July, they plant a second crop in September. Those crops are harvested in December. The other problem we have is that this past November we did not get any rain, so the farmers have to doing things by hand to water some of the crops or they can use a motor that has a pipe sticking out of it. Then water comes out of the pipe and the crops get water. The farmers eat rice in breakfast, lunch, and dinner with fish or chicken if they can afford it. The farmers loose their homes and when there is a flood, they take their animals to the shelter with them. In 1970, there was a huge title wave in the southern part of Bangladesh along its coast. The tide came off of the Bay of Bengal and was about 20-25 feet high. Many places were destroyed and after the government decided to create an emergency fund. If the water gets dirty the rice gets a disease and people cannot eat it. If the farmer’s crops don’t get a right amount of rain, the rice will not grow and the people will starve. The weather is important to food here in Bangladesh. Our South Asian Studies teacher shared with us how the seasons seem to be different at different times of the year now.
