Food Problem in Bangladesh

Introduction: ours is a developing country. Our country is beset with many problems. Food problem amounts to one of them. This problem has stood as a great impediment to the smooth running of our country.

History of the past: we learn from the history that Bangladesh had palm days in the past. Then all the villages were almost self-sufficient in all respects. They were fully self-sufficient in food production. Then all the barns were full of paddy; all the ponds were full of fish; all the sheds were full of cattle; farmers had sweet songs in their lips and all the houses were flowing with immense peace and happiness. But days are almost gone from amongst us. Now food problem has become the burning question of the day.

Causes of food problem: many are the causes of food problem in our country. There are:

a) Population explosion: population explosion is the major cause of food problem. The food production cannot keep pace with increasing rate of population. Here the population is increasing by a geometrical progression and food production is increasing by an arithmetical progression. This is why every year we had to import a huge quantity of food grains by spending much of our hard-earned foreign currency.

b) Declining of cultivable land: our land under cultivation is declining day by day with the increasing population. A large amount of our limited cultivatable land is being used as house building. Setting up industries, educational institutions constructing roads and high ways and other infrastructural development.

c) Unscientific method of cultivation: our farmers are using the outdated method of cultivation. They have not yet adopted the modern scientific method of cultivation. As a result, the production per acre of land in our country is much less than that of the other countries of the world.

d) Lack of irrigation system: though Bangladesh is a land of rivers, our agriculture greatly suffers form irrigation and water-crisis. We have not yet been able to develop a good system of irrigation. So our agriculture depends on nature of water. It is rightly said, ‘agriculture in Bangladesh is a gamble in monsoons.’

e) Sub-division and fragmentation of agricultural land: our agricultural lands are extremely limited in view of the existing population. Nevertheless, these lands are divided, sub-divided and fragmented. Not only that the fragmented lands are scattered hither and thither that creates irrigation and fencing problem. The ever-increasing rate of population growth has made the situation much more aggravating.

f) Other causes: there are some other causes than stated above. Natural calamities are most dreadful among them. Our country is visited almost every year by sudden and unexpected natural disaster like cyclone, flood, drought, excessive rainfall etc. moreover, the setbacks of required supply of high breeding seeds, timely supply of fertilizer at cheap prices, hoarding, smuggling, syndicating, lack of education of the farmers, lack of agricultural loans, problem of disguised unemployment, over-population in family, extreme poverty of the farmers, extra vagrant expenses on different ceremonies, lack of cultivation on commercial basis, decreasing the fertility of land etc are working actively behind food problem. The impacts of food problem are all the more grievous. The obvious result of food problem is starvation, which in the long run, lands to famine. The prices lookup by leaps and bounds and bring untold sufferings to the people especially to poor people. Moreover, it seriously hampers the economic growth of the country. We are actually the poor inhabitants of a rich country.

Remedies: food problem is actually eating into the vitality of the countries economy. The solution of the food problem is the crying need of the day. It has now become a major challenge for us to sustain food supply to increasing population. We must find our ways to cross the bar of the food crisis. The most important step to be taken in this regard is to control the population explosion. It is because we are really lost in the darkness of population boom. Next the following steps are to be taken: a) introduction modern scientific method of cultivation; b) introducing a good system of irrigation; c) using hi-yielding seed; d) using fertilizer and insecticides; e) introducing the system of rotation of crops; f) controlling natural calamities; g) providing agricultural loans one easy term; I) changing food habits; j) bringing fallow lands under cultivation; k) introducing co-operative farming system etc. what is to be added to these efforts is that we have to make the slogan ‘go back to the villages’ popular and move heaven and earth to turn the campaign ‘grow more food’ or ‘green revolution’ into a grand reality. I do believe this entire step will go a long way to solve the food problem of our country.

Conclusion: food problem is undoubtedly a gigantic problem of our country. It is high time we look necessary steps to solve the problem. Let us all come forward and make an all-out effort for attaining self-sufficiency in food production by bringing about a revolutionary change in the field of agriculture.

Food Problem in Bangladesh

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