Without the mechanization, using High Yielding Verities (HYV), and so-called ‘Green Revolution’ it would have never been possible to maintain the growth and development of the agricultural sector of this country. It is the key to maintaining the national food-population balance. ‘Green Revolution’ on crops diversity in Bangladesh needs in alignment with population growth, labor absorption, and land-use in agriculture, food security, nutrition, income distribution, rural poverty, and policy. The crops diversity in agriculture is decreasing in Bangladesh. Ultimately, making the agriculture more vulnerable to unsustainability.
Green Revolution: The Green Revolution is the term coined in the 1960s to cover the consequences of HYV, chemical fertilizers, insecticides and pesticides and controlled cultivation and irrigation methods. The first success in GR was in 1925 the ‘Norin 10’ semi Dwarf Wheat. It was an American and Japanese cross breed developed in Japan. After a long period of research time finally in 1935 that was distributed among the farmers of Japan. However, the GR is a large increase in crop production in developing countries achieved by the use of artificial fertilizers, pesticides, and high-yield crop varieties. It is pertinent that it is a technical and managerial package from the first world to the third world during the 1940s. It is also observed that it is the child of the ‘Cold War.
On the other hand, Henry Wallace was the first farmer from the USA who started commercialization of the hybrid crops during 1920. A lot of research on hybrid crops and he became the father of Mexican Green Revolution. After the success of Borlaug, the Mexican Green Revolution was spreader all over the world. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, United State Agency for International Development, and the Money from Rockefeller Foundation and Ford Foundation played a vital role in this event. The Green Revolution has generally brought the most benefit to wealthier farmers though some poorer farmers and even laborers have also derived some benefit. The gross production of food grains increased by some 62% from 1950-1951 to 1964-1965 in India. The picture is similar to the case of Pakistan. At the same time period, the production of food grains increased by some 59%. In Sri Lanka, Green Revolution has got success but the development is still going on. Everywhere, it is evident that the agro farmers became dependent HYV (rice, wheat, and maize) which push the indigenous verities from the market.
There was local rice production and the production was slower in pre-Green Revolution days in Bangladesh. In addition, the rice production falls in the 1970s because of cyclone and independence from Pakistan. This upward trend of food production was before Green Revolution but at a slower rate. It potentially increased the yields from the late 1960s after the introduction of dwarf HYV wheat from Mexico and HYV rice from International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) from the Philippines.
Green Revolution and Population in Bangladesh: The use of chemical fertilizers increased from 0 to 100 kg 2.5 cropped acre. The high yielding verities (HYV) by IRRI and Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) reached over 20% of total area of food grains. From the 1950s to 1970 the food grains production reached from 8 million to 13 million tons. During 2008-09, there were 27872 thousand acres of land were under rice production and among them 20190 thousand acres of land were under HYV which is 58% of total production of rice. About wheat, almost all the cultivated is under HYV and that is 975 thousand acres in 2008-09. In addition, during 2009-10, there were 1074 thousand acres of land were cultivated for potato and among the cultivated land 83% were under the HYV. Here the data shows how the HYV are taking the place of indigenous verities of crops in Bangladesh. In addition, Bangladesh has 3768 million acres of land under cereal production and is still not sufficient for feeding the huge population.
A divergent view, which has only recently been appreciated, is that the new technology may benefit the poor in the long run by (1) reducing the cost of production and thereby lowering the prices of food, and (2) generating more employment in nonfarm sectors by keeping real wages low and stimulating demand for nonfarm goods and services. There are different causes, which contributed to the population growth of Bangladesh. One of the causes is an increase in life expectancy. The increase in the life expectancy rate is closely related to the higher agricultural yield induced improvement in income level and subsequent nutritional intake.
Labor issue and impact on Green Revolution: Green Revolution marginalized the small firms by turning them into smaller units. Over the generations due to the inheritance law firms in Bangladesh are getting more fragmented. The status of the firms in Bangladesh and comparing the numbers it is observed that the large firms are relatively few compared to small and medium sized firms. Among the 15 million firms there are only 0.23 million firms are large firms. It ensures the labor intensive agriculture economy of Bangladesh. And that is making impossible for large-scale agricultural production. The small firms are mostly labor dependent firms. And most of the cases they have substituted the technologies with the human labor.
More than 49% of the total employed workforce in Bangladesh are in agriculture. The unemployment and underemployment exceed more than 30% in this sector. The total workforce in the agriculture is decreasing still it is the largest employer of the civilian workforce in Bangladesh. There are some examples of declining of labor demand in different seasons. And they have different consequences. There is a relation between labor force absorption and cropping pattern that includes agricultural technology, irrigation, HYV, etc. Further, multiple cropping has also contributed to the labor demand too. The tendency to HYV cultivation increased the possibility of decreasing the diversity of food crops production.
It is evident that the crop shift is important for improving aggregate land productivity. It also shows the increase in output during pre-Green Revolution period and post Green Revolution. During pre-Green Revolution, the change has bellowed the average but due to the shift in crops and introduction of agricultural technologies, there was the significant change in numbers of agricultural production. The crop shifting is improving the aggregate land productivity. It is a kind of strains that can hold up a heavy, grain-packed head without bending or breaking the plant stalk. Urgency of crops diversification: Crop diversification is one of the major components of crop production policy. For the overall development of crop sector, special emphasis will be given to crop diversification program under the crop production policy. The policies should accelerate in this respect-area under wheat has meanwhile reached at 0.8 million hectares, given the potential for expanding wheat acreage, efforts should continue to encourage farmers to grow more wheat.
The production of maize has shown prospective results in last two years. Maize has also gained popularity as human food side by side with the poultry feed. Public sector procurement of maize has been introduced like rice and wheat in order to encourage farmers in maize cultivation. The efforts for increasing area and production of maize to be strengthened. The program for increasing area and production of other crops, e.g., potato, pulses, oil seeds, vegetables, fruits and spices will gradually be extended under the crop diversification program. Production of different cash crops including jute, cotton to be increased and efforts will be made to expand their multiple uses. Special development programs should be taken with a view to increasing production of potential crops suitable for the coastal areas and the hill tract.
Concluding thoughts and remarks: Bangladesh is an agro-based developing nation where majority of the people directly or indirectly depend of agriculture. About 50% of total labor force was engaged in agricultural sectors. To increase the production of both major and minor cereals crop diversity has a positive impact. Successful diversification in cropping increase the employment opportunities for the marginal rural people, thus increase the income sources as well as solvency of rural people. The development of a country largely depends on industrialization and diversified production helps industries to grow quickly with providing sufficient raw materials.
It is evident that the same piece of land is giving more than ten times yield now compared to what it produced twenty years ago; mainly due to the adoption of diversified production in cultivation. Diversification has a positive link in case of provision of food security, improvement of living standard by increasing income of the population through generation of employment opportunities of the huge population and to improve the balance of trade by increasing exports. So, proper initiatives need to be taken by policy makers and in personal level for agricultural green revolution and crops diversification.
