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6 years ago

Land and crops in rural Bangladesh

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Obviously, in a country like Bangladesh with high man-land ratio reflected by a density of over 1200 people per sq.km, the pattern of land-use assumes special importance. It becomes more pertinent in the wake of shrinking agricultural land base by 0.31 to 1 per cent per year.  A glean at data-set derived from a longitudinal sample survey shows that only one-fifths of the land is now being used in Aus season (Kharif-1), whereas the crop claimed more than half of the land used in the 1980s.  Likewise, two-thirds of land are being used in Amon season (Kharif-11), as against four-fifths in the past. It appears that both the seasons witnessed a substantial wane in land-use by households during the comparable periods. It should be noted here that land under Aus has risen marginally over the last decade after a sharp fall possibly  due to resurgence of interest following new high-yielding varieties as well as campaign by the government and NGOs.

However,  to compensate for the loss of land in two seasons, land under cultivation in Boro season went up from a little over half to about 90 per cent during the period under review. Specifically, cultivated land under paddy during this season went up from one-fifths to half of total cultivated land. There has been another development over time. Maize crop now accounts for roughly one-tenths of cultivated land in boro season - a crop that was unknown to farmers even a decade back. Secondly, out of the land owned by rural households, the homestead size has squeezed over time. Big and barren front or back-yards no longer exist. As opposed to this,  land under garden and pond coverage increased in response to market signals resulting in growing land use for vegetables, horticultural crops and fish. Thirdly, only one-thirds of the cultivated land had access to irrigation during the 1980s. It has risen to more than four-fifths in recent periods. Admittedly, it was Shallow Tube wells (STWs) - the leader of the 'leading input'  called irrigation - that stole the show by tripling  the area under irrigation from merely 16 percent to about 60 percent during the same period of time. Indigenous methods once captured one-tenths of irrigated land; now they account for only 2 per cent due to drying up of rivers and  canals.

Various studies, including agricultural censuses tend to  reinforce the observation that tenancy market in rural Bangladesh has grown vibrant and thicker. Land under tenancy went up from one-fourths of total cultivated land to almost half of cultivated land between 1988 and 2014. Not only has transfer of land under tenancy gone up, but the tenurial arrangements have also witnessed remarkable changes. Of the rented lands, about three-fourths were under sharecropping system in the 1980s. This system - 50:50 of output - was dubbed as exploitative and inefficient with no incentive to increase output for both parties. The good news is that the share of owners fell to less than half in recent times. Quite surprisingly, as a silver linning option, rented land under fixed-rent/mortgage system together now account for about 60 per cent of rented land (fixed rent 38, Mortgage 20)  against about 30 per cent in the past. This shows that tenancy market in rural Bangladesh has moved towards market determined arrangements; farmers have shifted from risk-sharing (sharecropping) to risk taking (fixed-rent) arrangements. This is an indicator of the resilience of farm households.

There is another change. The share of pure tenants and tenant-owners - having no cultivated land and mostly having rented land respectively - increased from one-fifths to one-thirds over the same period of time. Especially the share of pure tenants doubled during the comparable periods from one-tenths to about one-fifths. All of these developments - increased tenancy and shifting arrangements - are the results of (a) shortage of agricultural labour and rising wages; (b) increased costs of monitoring and supervision; and (c) the exit of large and medium sized households towards more remunerative non-agricultural pursuits.

Coming to policy issues, despite the spread of modern technology, roughly 40 percent of the cultivated land  in Bangladesh continue to be single-cropped. Quite expectedly, it is the large and medium farms who have more single-cropped land than small farms because of increased costs of supervision. And finally, low land and very low lying areas have most of the single-cropped lands (low: about 50 percent; very low about 80 percent).  We need to think seriously how to covert those areas into multi-cropped to avert food crisis. A mapping is necessary to locate specific areas for technological interventions.

Contrary to the popular perceptions of falling productivity of land, the database shows that yield rate in terms of paddy has monotonically risen over time. The yield of Boro is estimated to be about 6 tons/ha - about twice the yield of 2000, and yield of MV Amon has increased from 3.3 to 3.8 tons/ha over the same period of time. Similar is the case with Aus yield. Interestingly, yield of maize - an unknown crop even a decade back - shot up from barely 1 ton/ha to about 8 tons/ha, which could be the reason for the increase in area under maize cultivation by pushing down wheat and other crops. The possible reasons for increased yield could have been judicious use of inputs as well as improved farm management.

The farmers have switched to improved varieties at the cost of low-yieelding traditional ones.  In the Boro season, Bridhan 28 and 29 are reported to capture almost 60 percent of the sown areas, as against half of that in the past. Hybrid variety was almost non-existent in 2000, but swelled to about one-fifths of the cultivation area in 2014. In the Amon season, Swarna variety occupies about 30 percent of sown area compared to 13 percent in 2000. Interestingly, BR11 topped the list in 2000 Amon season by capturing about 25 percent of area, but fell to only 6 percent in 2014.

Two important observations are worth noting as far as choice of variety is concerned. First, a total of 16 varieties of rice in Aus and Amon and 11 varieties in Boro season are grown in Bangladesh reflecting a respect for crop diversity, and thereby averting a fall in yield rate. Second, farmers tend to shift to newer varieties taking into consideration many factors. Although yield consideration comes first, period of maturity, market demand etc. are also determinants in their choice. For example, Bridhan 28 with relatively low yield is preferred to 29 because of the former's slight edge in maturity and taste. Third, the marginal rise in Aus area as mentioned before could be adduced to the advent of modern Aus variety and increased yield. Especially AC-1 and 2 provides more than 5 tons/ha and IR-50 and Chandina provides about 4 tons/ha. Finally, the policy implication is that, since the future of sustainable foodgrain production in Bangladesh depends largely on rice grown in these two low-yield and high risk seasons, serious efforts should be made for technological innovations through research and extension. The shift should be from Boro to Aus and Amon that need less ground water and fertilizers.

This in short is the story of land and livelihoods in rural Bangladesh. It appears that  investments in research on crop varieties and training of farmers on farm management could help us overcome the dearth of cultivated land.

Abdul Bayes is a former Professor of Economics at Jahangirnagar University.

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