Limitations to Agricultural Productivity

Limits to agricultural productivity growth are caused by a number of interrelated problems. Some of the major ones include: loss of arable land due to infrastructure, housing, and rural industrialization, lack of good quality HYV and hybrid seeds, degradation of soil fertility due to unbalanced use of chemical fertilizers, lack of scientific irrigation application, problems related to delivery of agricultural credit, poor marketing, processing and storage facilities of agricultural products, poor agricultural extension services, and weak farm and non-farm sector linkages.

High Costs of Agricultural Production

The prices of fertilizers and fuel have risen continuously and steeply in recent years, but the prices of farm products have not kept pace. This deteriorating input-to-output ratio for all crops decreases farmers’ profitability. As a result, for next season, farmers cannot afford to use fertilizers and improved hybrid quality seeds to increase yield. Although the Government is taking initiatives to supply fertilizers at a subsidized rate and decrease diesel price every year, these are not enough.

Addressing Problems of Low Soil Fertility

To increase crop production in response to increasing population, forests are constantly being cleared to make room for new, arable land. This large scale removal of forests is resulting in the reduction of soil fertility. These cleared lands are not fertile enough to support high-yielf crops, resulting in low-yield and crop failure. On the other hand, cultivatable lands lose their fertility after a certain number of cultivation cycles. These lands require soil treatment.

Depletion of organic matter, degradation of its physical and chemical properties, reduction in the availability of major micronutrients, imbalance in the fertiliser application and build-up of toxicity through improper use of pesticides are the major reasons for soil fertility decline. Furthermore, sheet and gully erosion clears land of fertile soils. Clearing of vegetation, earth removal, road construction, etc. cause most of the land degradation. Other issues related to land degradation include shifting cultivation in the Chittagong Hill regions, and unsustainable cultivation practices in the Barind and Madhupur tracts. Uses of pesticides and overexploitation of biomass leads to denudation, deforestation and degradation of soil. The consequences of soil degradation should be considered while the country strives to boost agricultural production.

Lack of Diversity

Land diversity is very much needed to maintain the fertility of soil. A large percentage of cultivatable land is allocated to rice despite the country having the environment to produce a number of crops, trees and horitcultural species.

Adverse Effects of Natural Disaster

Much of Bangladesh lies in disaster-prone, floodplain areas. Annual flooding and occasional flash flooding, together with other periodic natural disaters, often cause crop damage and food shortage for vulnerable populations. Consecutive floods in August- September and Cyclone Sidr in November 2007 caused severe losses to crops, lives, infrastructure and properties. The natural disaster risks and uncertainities also lead to transitory food insecurity, known as Monga, in certain northern districts of Rangpur, Kurigram, Gaibandha and Lalmonirhat.