Agricultural Productivity and Nutritional Security in Bangladesh

Bangladesh is a highly densely populated country with an average population density of over 1200 people per square kilometer. Agriculture remains the primary source of nutrition to the country’s population of 166 million, although the economic contribution of agriculture in terms of its share of GDP continues to decline. The agriculture sector has progressed over the past half a century since its independence in 1971, especially in increasing productivity in nearly all subsectors – crops, livestock, poultry, fish, and others. However, the increasingly shrinking availability of productive land, fragmented landholding, and the lack of ample capital assets pose serious challenges to coping with the expanded population and offering sufficient nutrition. In this paper, we would like to examine the trajectory of Bangladesh's agricultural and food production system over the past couple of decades and what role it has been playing in offering nutritional security to the people of Bangladesh. We will also explore the contribution international trade plays in providing nutritional security for the people.    The specific objectives are: 1.      Identify per capita production of different food crops and examine the trend. 2.      Identify the variability among different food products and their trend 3.      The per capita availability of major nutrition: protein, carbohydrate, fat, etc. 4.      Trends of other health and nutrition variables [i.e., infant mortality, life expectancy, live birth weight, women anemic, etc.,] 5.      Relate agricultural productivity with nutritional security. 6.      Recommend policy options The raw secondary data for this project has already been downloaded from different sites, especially FAOSTAT, the World Bank Databank, and the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics. Some literature searches and downloading literature have also been done. This was the first phase of the project.

Agricultural Productivity and Nutritional Security in Bangladesh Phase #2

Bangladesh is a highly densely populated country with an average population density of over 1200 people per square kilometer. Agriculture remains the primary source of nutrition to the country’s population of 166 million, although the economic contribution of agriculture in terms of its share of GDP continues to decline. The agriculture sector has progressed over the past half a century since its independence in 1971, especially in increasing productivity in nearly all subsectors – crops, livestock, poultry, fish, and others. However, the increasingly shrinking availability of productive land, fragmented landholding, and the lack of ample capital assets pose serious challenges to coping with the expanded population and offering sufficient nutrition. In this paper, we would like to examine the trajectory of Bangladesh's agricultural and food production system over the past couple of decades and what role it has been playing in offering nutritional security to the people of Bangladesh. We will also explore the contribution international trade plays in providing nutritional security for the people.    The specific objectives are: 1.      Identify per capita production of different food crops and examine the trend. 2.      Identify the variability among different food products and their trend 3.      The per capita availability of major nutrition: protein, carbohydrate, fat, etc. 4.      Trends of other health and nutrition variables [i.e., infant mortality, life expectancy, live birth weight, women anemic, etc.,] 5.      Relate agricultural productivity with nutritional security. 6.      Recommend policy options The raw secondary data for this project has already been downloaded from different sites, especially FAOSTAT, the World Bank Databank, and the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics. Some literature searches and downloading literature have also been done. This was the first phase of the project.