Building on its remarkable social and economic performance over the past 20 years, Bangladesh has recently been classified as a lower-middle-income country and aims to reach upper-middle-income country status by 2021. To achieve this, the Government of Bangladesh will need to overcome considerable challenges in agricultural development and rural economic growth. The country’s annual GDP growth averaged about 6 per cent between 2000 and 2013, and was accompanied by a decline in the national poverty rate from 48.9 per cent to 31.5 per cent over the first decade of the century, effectively lifting some 16 million people out of poverty.

Agriculture occupies some three quarters of the country’s limited land area and supports the livelihoods of most of the population. While overall poverty has significantly declined in recent years, in rural areas the poverty rate (still around 35 per cent) has not declined as fast as it has in urban settings. The proportion of people living in extreme poverty in rural areas is still three times higher than in urban areas.