Bangladesh: Challenges in Sustainable Agriculture
Bangladesh:
Challenges in Sustainable Agriculture
A. Introduction
There are 2.5 billion people
in the world whose livelihoods depend on agriculture. Of these, one billionaire
family farmers working small farms (of two hectares or less). The other 1.5
billion include farm laborers, fishers, migrant workers and pluralists. Family
farms are more than just businesses.They also contributes to local, regional
and national food security and to economic development. Forthe farmers
themselves, their farms are the basis for secure livelihoods and their
well-being. World agriculture will undergo far-reaching economic
and physical change in the coming 50 years. Population increase, urbanization
and income growth will drive the demand for food while high energy prices,
stress on natural resources, and climate change may act to constrain supply. To
feed the world’s growing population – projected to exceed 9 billion in 2050
(UN, 2009) – it will be necessary to boost the production of food and to do so
sustainably[1].
To be sustainable, agriculture will need to be intensified and its environmental
footprint made to shrink. Most important barrier to sustainable agriculture is
genetically modified organ (GMO) as well as high rate of population growth (Wambugu, 2003). A sustainable
agriculture is a system of agriculture that will last. It is an agriculture
that maintains its productivity over the long run. Sustainable agriculture is
both a philosophy and a system of farming. It has its roots in a set of values
that reflects an awareness of both ecological and social realities. Working
with natural soil processes is of particular importance. Sustainable
agriculture systems are designed to take maximizes advantage of existing soil
nutrient and water cycles, energy flows, and soil organisms for food production
(Fariborz, Ma’rof, Zahid and Sarjit, 2009).
These substances are rejected on the basis of their dependence on non-renewable
resources, disruption potential within the environment, and their potential
impacts on wildlife, livestock and human health. Instead, sustainable
agriculture systems rely on crop rotations, crop residues, animal manures,
legumes, green manures, off-farm organic wastes, appropriate mechanical
cultivation, and mineral bearing rocks to maximize soil biological activity,
and to maintain soil fertility and productivity. Natural, biological, and
cultural controls are used to manage pests, weeds and diseases (giz, 2010).
B.
Definitions of Sustainable Agriculture
The idea of sustainable agriculture has been around a long
time. Since the very first crop was sown and animal was penned, farmers have
tried to ensure that their land produces a similar or increasing yield of
products year after back-breaking year; recent attempts to popularize the
concept build on this tradition.
Modern definition: Sustainable agriculture is the use
of farming systems and practices which maintain or enhance (FACTA
1990):
- The economic viability of agricultural production;
- The natural resource base; and
- Other ecosystems which are influenced by agricultural activities.
This definition can be supplemented
by some fundamental principles of sustainable agriculture:
- That farm productivity is enhanced over the long term;
- That adverse impacts on the natural resource base and associated ecosystems are ameliorated, minimized or avoided;
- That residues resulting from the use of chemicals in agriculture are minimized;
- That net social benefit (in both monetary and non-monetary terms) from agriculture is maximized; and
- That farming systems are sufficiently flexible to manage risks associated with the vagaries of climate and markets.
C. Sustainable Agriculture in Global perspective
Agriculture is sustainable when it
is ecologically sound, economically viable, socially just, culturally
appropriate and based on a holistic scientific approach[2]. Low-External-Input
and Sustainable Agriculture (LEISA) is agriculture which makes optimal use of
locally available natural and human resources (such as soil, water, vegetation,
local plants and animals, and human labor, knowledge and skill) and which is
economically feasible, ecologically sound, culturally adapted and socially just(giz, 2010). Sustainable development is the
management and conservation of the natural resource base, and the orientation
of technological and institutional change in such a manner as to ensure the
attainment and continued satisfaction of human needs for present and future
generations. Such sustainable development (in the agriculture, forestry and
fisheries sectors) conserves land, water, plant and animal genetic resources,
is environmentally non-degrading, technically appropriate, economically viable
and socially acceptable[3].
D. Objectives of Sustainable
Agriculture
- Make best use of the resources available
- Minimize use of non-renewable resources
- Protect the health and safety of farm workers, local communities and society
- Protect and enhance the environment and natural resources
- Protect the economic viability of farming operations
- Provide sufficient financial reward to the farmer to enable continued production and contribute to the well-being of the community
- Produce sufficient high-quality and safe food
- Build on available technology, knowledge and skills in ways that suit local conditions and capacity.
·
Basic
Elements of Sustainable Agriculture
·
Sustainable
agriculture’s benefit to farm and community economies is grounded in four
well-established economic development principles and a fifth, concern for the
community (giz,
2010).
E. Steps to a Sustainable Agriculture
The agro-ecosystem is made up of many interacting components
with multiple goals. Nurtures natural resources and maintains ecological
balance is driven by market demand and economically viable, ensures local replicability,
gender equity, and social acceptability, generates predictable income and considers
availability of household labor and seasonality of labor demand.
F. Approaches
of Sustainable Agriculture
Ø Sustainable agriculture has been
practiced for many decades and encompasses a tremendous number of different
approaches described by many different names. To this point, most of these
approaches have largely been limited to the substitution of environmentally (giz, 2010).
Ø More significant advances can be
expected, however, as a result of developments in the science and art of
agro-ecosystem design and management.
Ø Many of the approaches in
conventional agriculture (minimum tillage, chemical banding) would fall into
the "efficiency" category (giz,
2010).
Ø Efforts to substitute safe products
and practices (botanical pesticides, bio-control agents, imported manures, rock
powders and mechanical weed control) are also gaining popularity (giz, 2010).
Ø The systems that focus on redesign
of the farm are the most sophisticated, generally the most environmentally and
economically sustainable, over the long term.
The approaches of sustainable
agriculture is very variable, and is dependent on the physical resources of the
farmer, and the degree deficiencies in support farm, the talents and commitment
of the support available (Abelson and Hines, 1999).
G. Policies for Sustainable Agriculture
The Bangladesh govt. policies have
always emphasized food grain self-sufficiency, which has not necessarily
coincided with agricultural sustainability. The growth of agricultural
production and productivity, which had risen significantly during 1970s and
1980s, declined during 1990s. These slowdowns have worsened since 2000; both
overall agricultural production and food grains production have shown negative
growth rates in 2000-01 to 2002-03 periods (GoI, 2002). Decline in the growth
rates of agricultural production and productivity is a serious issue
considering the questions of food security, livelihood, and environment. This
examination must be framed not only by Bangladesh’s ongoing need to ensure food
self-sufficiency but also by the consequences of access to international
markets (FACTA, 1990).
H.
Challenges in Agriculture
H.1. Challenges in Agriculture[4]
ü Rapid decrease of agricultural land @1% p.a. (82000
ha decrease annually)
ü Population growth @1.36% p.a.
ü Climate change and variations.
ü Rapid urbanization growth @12% p.a.
ü Agricultural research and education (manpower
shortage, updating course curriculum).
ü Technology generation (needs expertise, time and
money, logistics support).
ü Alternate livelihoods/rehabilitation program.
ü Depletion of Soil Fertility: low nutrition
ü Falling Productivity of HYV: Stagnancy in Research
ü Domination of Rice: 75% Cropped area
ü Population Increase: Additional 2.5 MMT by 2015
ü High Production Cost: Irrigation 26% P. Cost Subsidy
only 0.1%
ü Marketing and storage Problems (such as potato cold
storage)
ü Inadequate value addition /food processing.
ü Climate change adaptation & mitigation.
ü Research-extension-farmer-market linkage.
ü Shortage of Argil labor at peak seasons.
H.2. Environmental Challenges in Agriculture
The challenge for Bangladesh
agriculture, to put simply, is to increase production, while minimizing
environmental impact. This includes conserving and protecting the quality of
the resources that determine the performance of agriculture like land, water
and air. Reductions in yield, although determined by many factors, may be
partially a consequence of land and water exploitation (FAO, 1994). By the early 1980s approx. 53 percent of Bangladesh’s
geographical area had been considered degraded according to the Ministry of Agriculture:
Water logging affected about 8 percent of the cultivated area, while alkali and
acidic soils both affected about 4 percent. The major process of land
degradation is soil erosion (due to water and wind erosion) contributing to
over 75 percent of the land degradation. One third of this land was degraded by
human activities, while nearly one half was degraded by a combination of human
and natural causes. CPD found a negative and significant negative relationship
between land degradation and foodgrain productivity in both the 1980s and
1990s. The future challenges are very significant for sustainable agriculture.
The real picture is shown in figure-1 below:
Figure-1.
If look the graph (Figure-1) where
in 1970 population were very small in number but in 2010 it’s a large number of
population and food production also increasing but the total cultivate land are
not increases some time it was decreases too. Our present population is 150
Million and if this rate of birth is ongoing than by 2020 it will reach 160
Million or above. So, it the final time
to address the population control otherwise the upcoming disaster would be
damaged our whole structure and when people eat the meet of human being in absent
of food or food crises.
H.3. the challenges for sustainable farming
Many development and farmers’
organizations, researchers and policymakers are already convinced of the
opportunities that small scale sustainable farming provides in meeting the needs
of a growing world population for food and energy. The publication of the 2008
World Development Report (World Bank, 2007) and the International Assessment of
Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD, 2009)
clearly show the way forward for sustainable agriculture. But although the time
is right for an alternative agricultural approach, real change is difficult to
achieve and family farmers still face many challenges.
•
Climate change is already affecting food production and putting vulnerable,
small-scalefarmers at risk. At the same time, industrial agriculture
contributes significantly to climate change;
•
Land grabs are accelerating the development of industrial farming, with
multinational companies producing for the world market, and further
marginalizing small scale producers and local markets;
•
Share holders and private equity funds are increasingly using land and agricultural
commodities in their speculative activities;
•
A few seed companies control the global seed market which is severely reducing
agro biodiversity;
• The
agrochemical industry advertises their strategy for industrial agriculture as
the solution for the future, despite their past failures;
• A few
multinational food companies exert significant control over a large number of
value chains, thus reducing market opportunities for small-scale producers and
small retailers.
H.4. Policy Challenges for
Developing Countries
1. There is an urgent need for clear
priorities to invest in biotechnology (FAO, 1994).
2. Another crucial area of need is to
ensure availability of finances for biotechnology research and development (FAO, 1994).
3. A responsible management of
biotechnology should be established as a pre-requisite for sustainable
agricultural development and it requires that effective regulation for
bio-safety and food-safety are established wherever transgenic crops are to be
developed and released.
4. Developing countries should also
consider the role of intellectual property rights and their impact on the
acquisition, development and diffusion of biotechnology (FAO, 1994).
I. Conclusion
Modern agricultural biotechnology is one
of the mostpromising developments in modern science. Used in collaboration with
traditional or conventional breeding methods, it can raise crop productivity,
increase resistance to pests and diseases, develop tolerance to adverse weather
conditions, improve the nutritional value of some foods and enhance the
durability of products during harvesting or shipping (Kamal and Sultana- DNF.). With reasonable
biosafetyregulations and appropriate policies, this can be madeaccessible to
small-scale farmers with little or no risk tohuman health and the environment.
Therefore, in a worldwhere the consequence of inaction is death of thousandsof
children, we must not ignore any part of a possiblesolution, including
agricultural biotechnology. On the other hand policy issues and challenges
should be meets as early as possible otherwise more disaster waiting for
current and future generation.
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