Bangladesh

General Information

· Main climate: Tropical Wet, Tropical Dry Wet

· Total land area: 14 440 000 ha

· Internal renewable water resources 1 357 km³

· Incoming water flow: 1 000 km³

· GNP per capita, 1998: PPP$ 1 407

· Main food consumed: Rive, Wheat, Oil & Fat, Sugar & Honey, Pulses

· Rice supply, 1999: 252.2 kg paddy/capita/year

Basic Statistics

Producing Zones and Cropping Seasons

Following table shows the rice-harvested areas in different producing zones.

Rice is planted in three seasons in a year: Aus or summer rice crop, Aman crops, and Boro. In recent years the area under Boro has expanded.

Production Practices

The following figures show the estimated harvested rice area from different rice ecologies during 1995-2000 period.

Land preparation is still done mostly with animal traction, although small tractors have been recently introduced. The Aus crop is either direct seeded and transplanted under rainfed and/or irrigated conditions. The Aman crop includes broadcast Aman (B. Aman) and transplanted Aman (T. Aman). The transplanted Aman crops are grown mostly under rainfed conditions. However, recently supplemental irrigation, especially during reproductive phases, has become increasingly popular. Traditionally, T. Aman occupied the largest rice harvested area. The broadcasting Aman is mostly planted in deeply flooded lowland areas. The area under B. Aman has been increasingly converted for growing Boro crop, which is mostly a transplanted crop under irrigated conditions.

Rice is planted in different intensive rice-based cropping systems including rice-rice-grain legumes, rice-maize-grain legumes, rice-wheat-grain legumes, and others. Most rice varieties planted in the country belong to indica sub-species, although some authors consider that the Aus and Aman rice varieties belong to a special group. It is estimated that 5,000 traditional varieties are still in cultivation. A number of high yielding varieties (HYV) have been developed and released for cultivation during the last two decades.

· HYV for transplanted Aus and Boro

· HYV for broadcast Aus and transplanted Aman

· Upland rice varieties.

Hand weeding is still the main form of weed control. Harvesting and threshing are still mostly done manually. Farmers generally apply fertilizers, especially nitrogen. The following table shows responses of rice to fertilizer application.

Constraints and Issues of Sustainable Production

There are several constraints to sustainable rice production in Bangladesh.

• About 4 million hectares of land are potentially deficient of Sulphur and Zinc.

• Nearly 0.8 million hectares of land along the coastline are affected by salinity.

• Scarcity of water during the dry season.

• Drought, and deep flood in August and hailstorms in April to May.

• Weeds, insects (in particular brown plant hopper and stem borers), and diseases (in particular bacterial leaf blight and blast).

• Inadequate infrastructures, inadequate credits and input supply especially seed and fertilizer.

• Rural poverty: as many as 60 percent of the families are virtually landless.

• Price fluctuation.

The following table shows the production costs.

Rice yields in the country have increased substantially during the 1995 to 2000 period, suggesting an increase in the adoption of improved rice varieties and crop management practices. Rice yield in 2000, however, was still low compared to the yield potentials of available improved varieties. This may be due to the low percentage of harvested area from irrigated ecologies. Intensive rice-rice cropping pattern is dominant. The adoption of Rice Integrated Crop Management system and hybrid rice, especially in irrigated ecologies, could lead to sustainable increase in rice yield. This would afford farmers to save land for diversification to improve incomes and welfare.

Research and Development Institutes

• Bangladesh Agricultral Research Council, New Airport Road, Farmgate Dhaka 1215; Fax: 880-2-813032
• Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation, Krishi Bhaban, 49/51 Dilkhusha Motijheel Commercial Area, Dhaka, Phone: 237205, Telex: 642657, Fax: (880-2) 863125

• Bangladesh Rice Research Institute, Joydebpur, P.O. Box 911, Joydebpur, Gazipur, 1701 Dhaka, Phone: (0681) 2091, Fax: (0681) 2063

• Direction General, Department of Agricultural Extension, Ministry of Agriculture, Khamarbari, Farmgate, Dhaka 1215; Phone: 815267 Fax: 880-2-811884

• Ministry of Agriculture, Bhaban 4, Dhaka, Phone: (02) 834414, Telex: 642218, Fax: (02) 867040