BANGLADESH’S AGRICULTURE

Agriculture is the most important sector of Bangladeshi economy, and contributes 19.6% to
the national GDP thereby providing employment for 63% of the population. While
agriculture can be considered as a means of food security, it is also a livelihood for majority
of the population in Bangladesh and also a means of reducing poverty. Every 2 of 5
employed work in agriculture.
The agriculture sector can be broken down into four main components: crops, livestock,
fisheries, and forests. Of these, crops make up 55% of the sector. The industry currently
employs around 11% of the total population. About 50 percent of the population are
employed in this sector and about 70 percent people overall depend on agriculture for their
livelihood. A significant proportion of the poor relies on agriculture as the key source of
income and employment. According to the World Bank, the total arable land in Bangladesh
is 61.2% of total land area. For the past three decades the average growth of the agriculture
sector has hovered around 3.2 %.

GRAMEEN BANK
Grameen Bank, Bangladesh was founded by economist Muhammad Yunus as a means of
providing small loans to poor individuals. Grameen became an independent bank in 1983.
Headquarter of the bank is located in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It has more than 2,200 branches
in the country. More than 97 percent of Grameen’s loan recipients have been women.
Over the years, for contribution to alleviating poverty and steering social and economic
development in Bangladesh, Grameen Bank has been the MCCI award, the Nobel Peace
Prize, and the Petersberg Prize in the early 2000’s respectively. The Grameen Bank has a set
of defined decisions that are adhered to strictly. Among them, decision 4 states, ‘‘we shall
grow vegetables all the year round. We shall eat plenty of them and sell the surplus’’ and
decision-5 states, ‘‘during the plantation seasons, we shall plant as many seedlings as
possible.’’ The organization is poised to create opportunities for self-employment for the
vast multitude of unemployed people in rural Bangladesh

CONTRIBUTION TO THE AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT:

Grameen Bank in its quest of agricultural is focused on many initiatives centred on the
poorest of the poor and also with emphasis on empowering women in the same regard. The
Grameen (Bengali: “Rural”) model, devised by Professor Yunus in 1976, is an important
mandate for this purpose.
The Bank helps people especially farmers and rural women to buy crops, livestock, etc. It
also gives landless peasants the opportunity to purchase their requied tools, or other means
of production and engage on income-generating initiatives which will allow them escape
from the dragging cycle of "low income, low savings, low investment, and low income".
There is an exclusive focus on the poorest of the poor. The Bank also offers small-credit
loans and is determined to expand the loan portfolio to meet diverse development needs of
the poor-credit for seasonal cultivation to buy agricultural inputs. Average loan size is a little
over $ 100. Remarkably, default rates for the Grameen Bank have been far lower than those
for traditional banks.
To specifically contribute in agricultural development, Grameen Bank has established few
very large non-profit non-stock corporations such as GAF (Grameen Agricultural Foundation)
& GFF (Grameen Fisheries Foundation).

Grameen Agricultural Foundation (GAF):

This foundation has turned around the centuries old exploitative system of share cropping
to the benefit of small, very small landholders, and landless workers, who fully own the GAF
through share-holdings.

 It collates small, fragmented and inconveniently composed pieces of land into 50

acres primary farms, and irrigates them by a single deep tube-well. GAF provides the
capital (on loan from Grameen Bank) to sink and maintain the tube-well, the
irrigation system and carries out water management.
 GAF provides fertilisers, seeds, pesticides, farm machinery and all other agricultural
inputs. No cash payment is required. Instead a share of the crop is taken and sold in
the market to recover the costs. Since GAF is a non-profit company, any profit it
makes is returned to its share-holders.
 GAF also invests in crop diversification, bio-technology, storage, transportation and
marketing infra-structure.
In short, GAF has taken the risk out of small farmers to whom one failed crop meant losing
all they had. In the past these farmers had no choice but to dump the crop onto the market
as soon as they finish harvesting. With GAF infrastructure in place, the grain can be stored
until there is a demand and transported to markets previously beyond reach. With the
security of GAF behind them, the farmers are willing to experiment with unfamiliar crops.
Besides, GAF is also exploring the export potential for its surplus produce.

Grameen Fisheries Foundation (GFF):

In 1986, the foundation initiated off by taking over a failing government fisheries project
crippled by theft and negligence which involved 800 fish ponds, produced just 50 tons of fish
per year and was losing millions of dollars of donor (British) money. Today, fully owned by
its share-holder workers, GFF harvests over 1,000 tons of fish in a year, while practicing low-
intensity fish farming. Constant research and monitoring is undertaken to ensure that the
present generation of owner-workers can pass on an equally viable fishery to the next
generation.
This is the most remarkable initiative that houses modern fishing and aquaculture practices
that helps empower the rural cultivators.
Overall, Grameen bank also earned the worldwide support and after coming into the
inclusion of Grameen Bank, borrowers claimed that their condition improved and they had
more involvement in vegetable & fruit growing, and also had the scope of additional
investment opportunity in agriculture. Through the organization, agricultural development
was flourished specifically through crop cultivation, kitchen gardening, livestock & fisheries,
etc.

BRAC
Established by Sir Fazle Hasan Abed in 1972, following the independence of Bangladesh,
BRAC is a developmental success story, spreading and implementing antipoverty solutions.
Bangladesh has a primarily agrarian economy. The performance of this sector has an
overwhelming impact on major macroeconomic objectives like employment generation,
poverty alleviation, human resources development and food security. For such a scenario,
BRAC has formulated initiatives to steer agricultural development and help the country
progress towards a sustainable future.
Building systems of production and distribution, offering quality seeds at fair prices and
developing better crop varieties and practices. Developing and disseminating climate-smart
agricultural technologies, and developing markets using an approach that encourages
entrepreneurship and supports the country in becoming self-sufficient in food production
are some major focus of the organization.

Impact of BRAC’s Initiatives:

 444,000 people accessed agricultural services in 45 sub-districts.

 56,600 women gained skills in nutri-gardening.
 8,430 farmers gained skills in fish-rice-vegetable integration.

CONTRIBUTION TO AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT:

In enhancing agricultural competency, BRAC does the following:

 Support farmers-Promote high-yield and sustainable agriculture technologies

 Nurture nourishment-Promote nutri-gardens as a means of crop diversification and
to improve nutrition
 Women in agriculture-Promote seasonal floodplains to turn waste lands into
resourceful water bodies

How BRAC conducts the initiatives:

  Improve cropping patterns-Increase cropping intensity and find appropriate
cropping patterns for climate-vulnerable areas
 Adaptive research for technology validation-Agronomic experiments and field trials
to achieve food security and reduce hunger
 Capacity development of farmers-Disseminate agricultural and aquaculture
technologies, technical guidance, training and adoption of modern crop varieties

Besides, BRAC does the initiatives due to the following reasons:

 Location-specific cropping systems-Increase crop productivity through location-
specific crops and provide appropriate technology recommendations
 Farmer’s support centre-Agricultural information service, instant suggestions and
extension activities to support farmers
 Use of ICT-Comprehensive ICT platform for farmers to access and disseminate
information on good practices
 Make quality seeds accessible-Provide linkage to access quality seeds through
training

Notably, in contributing to the Agricultural development of Bangladesh, the Agriculture and

Food Security Programme (AFSP) of BRAC is a frontrunner. AFSP of BRAC is working in
agricultural research, development and extension activities and playing an important role at
climate vulnerable areas of Bangladesh in attaining self-sufficiency in food production.

Major functions under the programme:

1. Farmer’s participatory validation and extension-Disseminating improved production
technologies to the farmers by establishing demonstration plots of different crops.
Farmers are given hands on training on improved crop production technologies. AFSP
has been promoting the concept of nutri-gardening by engaging the rural women on
year round cultivation of fruits and vegetables in homesteads. Trainings are provided to
them for raising awareness in producing safe and organic food.

2. Integrated aquaculture in gher and seasonal floodplain-BRAC is implementing

development activities to improve the productivity of gher through better management
of resources. Diversified use of the gher through rice-fish culture, dyke farming
(cultivating vegetables and fruits on each side of the gher) is also demonstrated to
maximize the profit and improve livelihood.

3. Biodiversity conservation-Efforts have been taken to conserve rice biodiversity at

BRAC’s agriculture research and development centre in Gazipur.
As part of BRAC’s contribution to develop the agriculture sector, the existing projects of
BRAC in this regard are:
• Agriculture and Food Security Programme (AFSP)
• Unlocking the production potential of polder communities in coastal Bangladesh through
improved resource use efficiency and diversified cropping systems
• Supporting social and economic development of 910 families in a state of vulnerability, in
the Bagerhat district of Bangladesh through an innovating model of small-scale aquaculture

Other initiatives include a one-plant tissue culture lab for potato, banana, and ornamental
plants, one soil testing lab, nine seed production farms, two seed processing centres for rice,
vegetables and maize, and eight seed storage facilities.
AFSP closely works with both national and international research organizations including
Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI), Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute (BARI)
and Bangladesh Institute of Nuclear Agriculture (BINA) and also collaborates with
International organizations.
Furthermore, BRAC’s Innovative measures are also noteworthy.
BRAC Innovations for Small Farmer Agriculture:
In case of technological innovation processes for agriculture, BRAC proceeds in both ways:
Agricultural Research for Development (AR4D) and Action research. For AR4D, the
organization has its own agricultural research centers and a demonstration plot called the
BRAC Agricultural Research Center (BARDC) located in Gazipur and Sherpur, Bogra in
Bangladesh. For action research, BRAC uses its contract farmers in different districts of
Bangladesh.
Technology with Financial Support:
BRAC has been providing financial support along with technology in the field of farming
through the Borgachasi/Sharecropper Union Programme (BCU) Project. Under the BCUP
project scheme, BRAC provides credit to farmers as per the demand for purchasing inputs,
tools and irrigation equipment, and continues to provide technical support to farmers and
to address their ongoing & post-harvest problems.
BRAC plans to introduce agro-consumer products to the market, including sunflower oil and
spices. To date, it has released ten hybrid rice, two hybrid maize, one quality protein maize
(QPM) and nine vegetable varieties (hybrid and OPM).

Therefore, these are notable scenario of how Grameen Bank and BRAC is playing an
influential role in flourishing the agricultural development in Bangladesh.