Efficient use of agricultural land in Bangladesh: strategies for optimization.

Abstract

Bangladesh is an agrarian country trying to feed an increasing population with gradually diminishing cultivable land. Majority of the population in Bangladesh depends directly or indirectly on agriculture. The agriculture of Bangladesh is capable of producing different types of crops all around the year. However, crop-wise nutritional value is different from crop to crop. As the amount of cultivable land is a major issue for crop cultivation, required domestic production is very much dependent on the optimum use of these lands. Every year, Bangladesh is to import and export various agricultural products to respond to additional demand and surplus production. The presence of strategies to maintain optimum use of land for each crop based on the domestic demand and export-import policies would stabilize the production system in Bangladesh. Cost of production and fair farm gate price of agricultural produce are two most important aspects related to the smooth marketing of the agricultural products, which also have significant impact on the production of a certain crop in successive years. As there is no alternative technique other than placing pressure on the scarce arable land of Bangladesh to ensure food security for its 168.96 million people, only a better planning for agricultural lands by expected crops may help solve the problem. The main objective of this research is to optimize the amount of land for each type of crop, especially for the rabi season, in order to maximize the farm-gate price and minimize the cost of production to help policy makers for devising better policy to ensure food security of the country. With the help of sophisticated statistical techniques this research suggests some alternative scenarios of optimum use of arable land by crops in rabi season that will enable the government to device appropriate strategies and incentive plans.