Bangladesh Resident Mission

Agriculture for Sustainable Growth

Background

Bangladesh’s economy is still dominated by agriculture, which supports the vast majority of the population.

Agriculture produces 25% of the gross domestic product and 15% of exports, and employs 60% of the labor force. Efficient and productive agriculture is essential for sustainable growth.

ADB has consistently been emphasizing increasing food grain production and broadening the agricultural base by diversifying crops and developing the livestock and fisheries sectors. Bangladesh has reached near self-sufficiency in rice production.

Conserving natural resources is also a major priority for ADB, which funds several projects to protect and preserve the environment and its treasures. ADB has also assisted in creating irrigation systems, developing command areas to provide equitable irrigation water supply, fostering small-scale water resource management, and building flood protection.

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Supporting Small-Scale Farmers

Over the past decade, ADB has been concentrating on revitalizing the agriculture sector. The Food Crops Development Program and a series of rural infrastructure enhancements, water resource improvement, and microfinance projects have provided critically needed financial resources to the rural poor.

The Horticulture Development Project, aimed at crop diversification, provided know-how and capacities to service providers and homestead horticulture producers. The project trained more than 70,000 farmers in horticulture techniques and developed 25 horticulture training centers. Related to this is ADB’s Participatory Livestock Development Project, which supports farmers—particularly women farmers—in subsistence livestock production.

ADB previously focused on increasing food grain production by constructing quick-yielding groundwater irrigation projects and drainage facilities, and intensifying crop production. To boost new rice technology, ADB has assisted in supporting manufacturing urea fertilizer from the country’s natural gas resources and in providing agricultural credit for production inputs. ADB has also developed physical infrastructure and the fisheries and forestry sectors.

The Northwest Crop Diversification Project is a current pioneering initiative of ADB aimed at diversifying crops to increase farm incomes. The project aims to promote production and efficient marketing of high-yielding varieties and provide training and credit support to small-scale farmers, especially women farmers.

The ADB-supported Bangladesh Agricultural Inputs Program has helped sustain food grain production by providing timely supply of diesel fuel and pesticides to farmers.

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Helping the Rural Poor Become Self-Reliant

Good roads and electricity have a direct positive impact on growth and poverty. ADB supports the Government’s approach to rural infrastructure development and continues to finance a series of projects to develop, upgrade, and maintain rural roads and bridges, irrigation works and flood protection — thereby enhancing the flow of services and investment in the rural market, as well as providing the rural poor with the means to engage in income-earning activities.

ADB supports microfinance and credit for crops or agri-business. Consistent with the Government’s policy, ADB assistance focuses on several areas, including promoting greater community participation in infrastructure development, coordinating complementary road and transport activities, establishing and funding a good maintenance system, and increasing the role of the private sector.

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Managing Natural Resources and the Environment

During the 1990s, ADB switched from merely responding to environmental problems to trying to anticipate critical environmental needs that include the management of natural resources. One of ADB’s environmental policy tools is its environmental impact assessment of all projects, which shows ADB’s commitment to the environmental aspects of development.

ADB’s assistance to vital sectors such as health and education and provision of alternative livelihoods reduce the need for the underprivileged to further deplete valuable natural resources—such as forests, biodiversity, and fisheries—for their livelihoods.

The environmental component of ADB’s Secondary Towns Infrastructure Development Project includes sanitation, drainage, and garbage disposal. This is also true for its second water supply and sanitation projects in nine district towns.

The ADB microfinance services under the Rural Livelihood Project helps poor people start their own enterprises, thereby reducing poverty and, in turn, decreasing the need for overexploiting natural resources.

ADB’s Sundarbans Biodiversity Conservation Project is an important program for conserving Bangladesh’s ecosystem and biodiversity. The project will carry out comprehensive biological and hydrological inventories, identify management options for forestry and fisheries, and provide guidelines for ecotourism in the Sundarbans Reserved Forest. The project is also sensitive to the needs of communities dependent on the natural resources of the Sundarbans ecosystem.

Air pollution in the cities is also a major concern for Bangladesh. ADB provided technical assistance to carry out an Urban Transport and Environmental Improvement Study. The project has developed action plans for improving and monitoring the operational fitness of vehicles, especially three-wheel “baby taxis” with two-stoke engines. The study found alarming levels of carbon monoxide emitted mainly by two-stoke engine vehicles. The study also recommended that buses and three-wheelers be converted to compressed natural gas–powered vehicles that are far less polluting.

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