Land is the main source of livelihood in rural Bangladesh. In a country of too many people chasing extremely scarce land, it is the precious resource that every person wants to own and does not want to sell even when moving to non-farm occupations. With a view to understanding the land-people nexus and grasping the frightening gravity, we begin with a discussion on land asset, mainly based on data obtained from the reports of Agricultural Censuses.
The population density in Bangladesh is one of the highest in the world (about 920 persons per sq km). Eminent economist Dr. Mahbub-ul-Huq of Pakistan used an example to explain the level of population density and its implications that we reproduce for our readers: If all the people of the world could be accommodated in the United States of America, the population density of that country (America) would not be as high as it is now in Bangladesh. Against this, the arable land per-capita in this country at 0.061 ha is pitifully low by any stretch of imagination. Over the last three decades or so, population growth rate has appreciably declined from 3.0 to 1.4 per cent per year; but two million more people are added every year to the existing titanic total of 147 million. Two other important eyesores further compound the food and mouth mismatch: (a) the per-capita GDP (gross domestic product) is extremely low at less than US$ PPP (purchasing power parity) 2000 per year (2005). This stands substantially lower when compared with even some Asian countries: US$ 3,486 (India), US$ 6,572 (China) and US$ 8,843 of (Malaysia). Over and above, (b) 60 per cent of the income is spent on food and rice alone claims 30 per cent of the household budget.
Over the years Bangladesh has faced increasing incidence of landlessness and shrinking of arable land. Historically, excessive population pressure on limited land resource base has exacerbated the situation. According to the Agricultural Census of 1996, the number of rural households enumerated was 17.8 million. Out of that, 10 per cent did not own any land at all; about a third did not own any cultivable land, and roughly 60 per cent owned less than 0.2 ha. This group is called "functionally landless" group as the meagre amount of land cannot be a significant source of income for them. It was further reported that the number of the large landowners was also very small. According to the same census, only 0.1 per cent of the total households reported to own more than 10 ha and 2.1 per cent held more than 3.0 ha. Even this tiny portion of the households that are considered "large landowners" by Bangladesh standard controlled nearly two-fifths of the land resources.
The earliest land occupancy survey of Bangladesh carried out in 1978 is a pointer to this pattern:Â only about one-tenth of the households controlled 48 per cent of the land at that time. Over time, with division of landholdings at inheritance, the proportion of land owners has declined but, at the same time, the proportion of small and marginal land owners has increased. Despite the rapid migration of the dispossessed to the cities seeking better economic opportunities, the proportion of landless households is on the rise.
In addition to population pressure, the attack on limited agricultural resource base has also come from acquisition of land for government development projects, demand for housing and industrial and commercial establishments, and erosion of river banks. The 1996 Agricultural Census reported that the land area operated by rural households declined from 9.2 million ha in 1983-84 to 8.2 million ha in 1996. Out of the transfer of 1.0 million ha, 82 thousands ha were on account of the increased urban areas, homestead land and development of infrastructure. That means, Bangladesh has been surrendering, on average, 225 ha of agricultural land every day. Thus, demographic pressures on the one hand and demand from non-agricultural sources, on the other, continue to constrict availability of cultivable land. Ipso facto, the average size of farm holding declined from 1.70 ha in 1960 to 0.91 ha in 1983-84 and, further to 0.68 ha in 1996. It may be mentioned here that the 2005 national-level sample survey, conducted by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, estimated the average size of holding at 0.60 ha.
At the backdrop of the above-mentioned information on land availability at the national level, let us analyse the findings of the changes in agrarian structure over the last two decades, as revealed by the repeat household surveys. We shall be particularly looking at the changes in land ownership and distribution, farm size and tenancy relations, as well as improvement in the productivity of land through expansion of irrigation infrastructure. The purpose is to evaluate the relationship between land and livelihoods in rural context.
The rationale for invoking an interest on agrarian structure rests on the hypothesis proposed by a number of influential rural studies in the 1970s that the agrarian structure in Bangladesh itself imposes limits on the development potential of the country. These studies argued that dominance of small and marginal farms, fragmented and scattered holdings, and the prevalence of sharecropping tenancy arrangements would constrain the development forces in Bangladesh agriculture. It was further argued that the green revolution would bypass the small and tenant farmers thereby contributing to further worsening the distribution of rural incomes. The large farmers with access to finance and credit would adopt modern technologies, and their profits will be used to buy out small farms and evict tenants. We realised that it is, perhaps, the time to put the hypothesis on an empirical plane by making use of the vast pool of data at our disposal.
We observe that over time, the greatest beneficiary of the green revolution is the poor peasant class - functionally landless and marginal farm groups. The richer ones reaped home harvests at an early stage of the adoption of green revolution by taking risks in some plots out of a vast number of plots at their disposal. The risk-adverse poor waited to see the outcome of an expensive and unknown package. Thus doing by learning, they now place four-fifth of their cultivated land under modern varieties. The so-called self-sufficiency that we now boast of, come mainly from their contribution to agriculture led by modern varieties. The problems of finance have been taken care of by NGOs (non-governmental organizations) and various government organiations in the initial stage, by the generated surplus in the second stage and by the income from non-farm sources in the later stage. Likewise, the problems of knowledge have been solved by agricultural extension workers and NGO initiatives.
The writer is a Professor of Economics at Jahangirnagar University.              Â
 abdulbayes@yahoo.com
Emerging leadership in agriculture
Abdul Bayes | Published: December 26, 2013 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00
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