[2] The performance of this sector has an overwhelming impact on major macroeconomic objectives like employment generation, poverty alleviation, human resources development, food security, and other economic and social forces.Due to a number of factors, Bangladesh's labour-intensive agriculture has achieved steady increases in food grain production despite the often unfavorable weather conditions.Underemployment remains a serious problem, and a growing concern for Bangladesh's agricultural sector will be its ability to absorb additional manpower.[3] Finding alternative sources of employment will continue to be a daunting problem for future governments, particularly with the increasing numbers of landless peasants who already account for about half the rural labour force.[9] Due to a number of factors, Bangladesh's labour-intensive agriculture has achieved steady increases in food grain production despite the often unfavorable weather conditions.[9] Underemployment remains a serious problem, and a growing concern for Bangladesh's agricultural sector will be its ability to absorb additional manpower.Rice is Bangladesh's primary crop and staple food, dominating agricultural production, employment, nutritional intake, and contributing substantially to national income.[26] Despite the seemingly low level of technology applied to shrimp aquaculture, it became an increasingly important part of the frozen seafood industry in the mid-1980s.[39] The government has initiated projects aimed at promoting commercial coffee cultivation by providing training to interested farmers and establishing workshops and research centres in this regard.[46] National sales of the classes of insecticide used on rice, including granular carbofuran, synthetic pyrethroids, and malathion exceeded 13,000 tons of formulated product in 2003.As a result of all this, Bangladesh would need to prepare for long-term adaptation, which could be as drastic as changing sowing dates due to seasonal variations, introducing different varieties and species, to practicing novel water supply and irrigation systems.The risk of sea level rising and global warming is the biggest challenge not only to country's agricultural improvement but also the success on poverty reduction.As agricultural production is heavily related with temperature and rainfall, the current change in weather conditions is creating negative impact on crop yielding and the total area of arable land has been decreased.According to a report published by the Ministry of Environment and Forests - GoB, 1 degree Celsius increase in maximum temperature at vegetative, reproductive and ripening stages there was a decrease in Aman rice production by 2.94, 53.06 and 17.28 tons respectively.[52] Another major threat deriving from this factor is water salinity which directly affects rice production especially in the coastal part of Bangladesh.
As
watercourses
such as canals, both natural and manmade, and rivers contribute as the vital source of irrigation, their spread across the country is attributed as a key factor for the economic and geographic extent of agriculture in Bangladesh. Photographed is a process of
irrigation
underway in
Comilla
, enabled by a
pump
that is extracting water from
the Gumti
seen in the background.
Map showing the growing areas of major agricultural products.