Agriculture

CHAPTER 7

AGRICULTURE

‘Food for all’ is the prime commitment of the present Government. As such the Government has given top priority to agriculture sector to achieve self sufficiency in food again by 2013 through increased production. In fact, agriculture is regarded as the most important sector of Bangladesh economy. The contribution of this sector to GDP was 20.83 percent in FY 2007-08. The overall contribution of the broad agriculture sector at constant price is projected at 20.60 percent of GDP in FY 2008-09. Though the direct contribution of the agriculture sector has decreased slightly, it has indirect contribution to the overall growth of GDP. The growth of broad service sector, particularly the growth of wholesale and retail trade, hotel and restaurants, transport and communication sector is strongly supported by the agriculture sector. Besides, about 48.1 percent of the total labour forces of the country are engaged in agriculture (BBS Labour Force Survey, 2005-06). In FY 2008-09, Bangladesh earned 870.11 million US$ by exporting agricultural products which is 5.59 percent of total export earning. Further, the exports of main agricultural commodities such as, raw jute, jute goods, tea, frozen foods, the Government has taken initiatives to increase exports of non-traditional agricultural commodities. Within the broad agriculture sector in FY 2008-09, the contribution of agriculture and forestry and fisheries are estimated at 16.03 percent and 4.57 percent respectively. In FY 2007-08, the contribution of these two sectors stood at 16.18 percent and 4.65 percent respectively. According to the provisional estimate of GDP for FY 2008-09, the contribution of the three sub-sectors i.e. crops and vegetables, livestock and forestry are 11.55 percent, 2.73 percent and 1.75 percent respectively. Management of Agriculture The economic growth of an agro-based country like Bangladesh mainly depends on the development of agriculture sector. Since provision of food...