Increasing Rice Production Eliminating the Vicious Chain of Food Gap: The Review of Long-Term Outlook of Rice Sector in Bangladesh
Md Shah Alamgir*
Sylhet Agricultural University, Bangladesh
Submission: May 21, 2019; Published: June 11, 2019
*Corresponding author: Md. Shah Alamgir, Sylhet Agricultural University, Sylhet, Bangladesh
How to cite this article: Md Shah Alamgir. Increasing Rice Production Eliminating the Vicious Chain of Food Gap: The Review of Long-Term Outlook of Rice Sector in Bangladesh. Int J Environ Sci Nat Res. 2019; 20(1): 556028. DOI:10.19080/IJESNR.2019.20.556028
Abstract
Rice is the main cash crop and staple food staple food for people of Bangladesh. Per capita consumption of rice is about 170kg per year. After independence, rice production gradually increases in Bangladesh, however due to population pressure; a sharp gap exists between production and consumption during the period of 1972 to 2008. Despite pressure from overpopulation, Bangladesh has reached self-sufficiency in rice production and secured fourth position among the highest rice producing countries in the world.
Keywords: Rice production; Food gap; Long-term outlook
Introduction
Bangladesh is an agriculture-based country in the world. Many cash crops are producing by the farmers of this country such as, rice, wheat, potato, jute etc. However, rice is the most important and number one crop according to production and staple food for people of Bangladesh. After liberation war in 1971, this country faced lots of crisis due to war that were infrastructural damage, food shortage, lack of resource person etc. This country overcome the great famine in 1974 due to shortage of food. However, after that period the country runback to food production and increased the rice production.
Rice grown throughout the country except some of hilly areas. Agro climatic condition of the country are suitable for growing different agricultural crops in year-round of this country. In Bangladesh, Agriculture contributes 15.35% of the gross domestic product (GDP); in addition, rice and other crops contributes 8.35% [1].
The population of Bangladesh increasing over the period, land and other natural resources facing the high pressure however, Bangladesh has made significant advancement in food production over the last three and a half decades [2].
Rice is the main crop of Bangladesh and staple food, reflected in the high per capita rice consumption in this country. For getting the nutritional demand people of this country used rice. Due to cultivation techniques and cropping patterns rice production in Bangladesh has gradually changed in terms of yield potentials. Despite pressure from overpopulation, the country has reached self-sufficiency in rice production [3].
There has been quite improvement in terms of food grain availability over the years. In fact, per capita availability of rice has increased 137kg in 1972 to 172kg in 2013. Even though population has increased tremendously by this period implying an overall increase in food demand. Despite the significant increase in rice production Bangladesh is still one of the largest food grain importers in the world (Akhter et al. 2016). However, assessment of long-term rice supply scenario in Bangladesh could be of enormous use for the research managers, planners to take decision for the improvement of this sector.
Methodology
This study used secondary data for the analysis of rice scenario in Bangladesh. A time series data regarding area, production, yield etc. of rice from 1972 to 2013 (42 years) collected from International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) and other different published and unpublished reports of related study. The present study employed in analyzing the data mainly for descriptive statistics. In descriptive analysis, to derive meaningful findings, the tabular technique and graphs used to classify the generated data.
Results and Discussion
World rice production
Rice is the most important foods in the world, and it contains many priceless health benefits. The production of rice has increased steadily over the decade. World’s most consumed staple food is cultivated mainly in Asian countries. These countries produce rice to meet their own demand as well as export to other countries (Figure 1).
According to the statistics of world rice production in 2016, China is highest rice producing country in the world. In 2016 from USDA estimates, the world rice production is 480.02 million metric ton where Bangladesh achieved the fourth position (USDA, 2017).
Rice production in different season
In Bangladesh, three kinds of rice are producing by farmers’ aus, aman, and boro. Aman area covered most of the Bangladesh, but the yield rate is lower than the boro production. The boro production increases over the periods due to the increasing rate of yield. Moreover, farmers are using modern variety for all kinds of rice production. However, area of aus production increases but not the significant increases of yield. It appears that during the last two decades the boro crop has had a higher share in total production than the aman rice, which was the major rice crop in Bangladesh (Table 1).
Source: Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics [4].
Rice production trend in Bangladesh from 1972 to 2013
Food security means rice security in Bangladesh. It provides income, employment, and food directly or indirectly for more than 70% of the peoples. From rice deficit to almost self-sufficient for some of the years in last decade. The Figure 2 indicates that total rice production area in Bangladesh not increasing over the period and it is about 10 million ha. However, the total production increases during the period and great change of rice production in after the year 2000. Moreover, average yield rate of rice is about 4 tons per ha.
Production and consumption status of rice in Bangladesh
Bangladesh is the leading country to produce rice all over world. The trend of paddy (with husk rice) production tremendously increasing after 1995. The dramatic increase of paddy production in last decade and reached more than 50 million metric tons, which followed for milled rice production. There is a certain gap between production and consumption of milled rice in Bangladesh (Figure 3). This situation influences to import milled rice or other food grain from different countries. In the very beginning of Bangladesh, there is no big gap; however, after 1985 to 2000, there was a big gap in total production and consumption. However, in the year of 2000 the production and consumption made a balance between consumption and production. Furthermore, from 2001 to 2007 shows the national gap between the production and consumption of milled rice.
Remarkably, after 2007 the country overcome the negative situation and change to surplus situation of rice production. Now Bangladesh enjoy the surplus rice production and fully rice secured country. This result indicates the self-sufficiency of rice production in Bangladesh.
Per capita consumption of rice
The people of Bangladesh eat different kinds of foods, however, rice the staple dietary item and per capita consumption of rice is about 171kg/year [4].
The Figure 4 shows the increasing trend of per capita of rice consumption in Bangladesh during the period of 1972-2013. In addition, after the year 2000, it was dramatically increased and reached more than 170kg/year. The accomplishment of the Green Revolution in the early 1960s witnessed a steady rise in Asia’s per capita rice consumption from 85 kilograms per year in the early ’60s to nearly 103 kilograms in the early’90s. On the other hand, global per capita consumption rose from 50 to 65 kilograms per annum during the same period. The rising per capita consumption plus the growing population more than doubled global rice consumption during this period from 150 to 350 million tons [5].
Import and export of rice in Bangladesh
Many studies indicate that Bangladesh achieving near selfsufficiency in food grain production however this country is still one of the largest food grain importers in the world. To keep dive with the increasing demand emanating from population growth, government kept on continuing the import of food grains. From the figure, after liberation war of Bangladesh in 1971 started to import rice and continue to till date. The trend of rice import fluctuating over the years and highest import was in the year of 1999 and it was more than 2 million metric tons, which followed to the rest of the years. It is worth mentioning that the volume of food grain import was more than doubled compare to the amount of 1992 with the amount imported in 1999, which followed rest of the years. Rice production fully damaged due to long-term flood in 1998 and influenced the import of rice in 1999. Private imports (Imports from India) contributed a lot in 1998 and 2002 when there were production shocks but during the price, hikes in 2007-08 it did not work because of the export restrictions of India (Figure 5).
Food grain production in Bangladesh
After independence to till now during the last three decades Bangladesh, achieved a tremendous progress in agriculture [6]. Modern technology has made a remarkable impact on output growth. The rapid growth of modern inputs has had a positive impact on food-grain production.
Bangladesh has achieved significant improvement in food production particularly in rice production since the independence of Bangladesh. Since independence rice, production has increased from 11 million ton to 34 million tons [1]. This significant improvement in agriculture can largely be attributed to rapid expansion of modern technology in Bangladesh over the last few decades. It is evident from the Table 2 that food grains production in FY 2002 - 03 was only 26.87 million metric tons of which Aus accounted for 1.85 million metric tons, Aman 11.11 million metric tons, wheat 1.50 million metric tons and Boro 12.22 million metric tons.
Table 2 also shows that total food grains production in the year of 2015-16 stood at 38.69 million metric tons of which aus accounted for 2.29 million metric tons, aman 13.48 million metric tons, boro 18.94 million metric tons, wheat 1.35 million metric tons and maize 2.64 million metric tons [7,8].
Source: BER [1].
Source: International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), 2017.
Nutritional status from rice over the period
Although food grain production has more than doubled since independence in 1971. However, until now food insecurity is a big issue in Bangladesh (Table 3) [9].
Conclusion
About 80% of people in Bangladesh depend directly on agriculture for their food and livelihood, and rice being the first most vital crop. Natural calamity and climate change influenced strongly on rice production. However, the rice production gradually increased after independence of Bangladesh and now a days Bangladesh become the leading position of rice growing countries in the world. This increasing trend of rice production have direct implications for food security in Bangladesh as well as South Asia.
References
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