Recommendations

Availability

Reducing the Cost of Production

In recent years, the shortage of fertilizer in many districts has become a serious issue during planting time. Appropriate government authorities need to take appropriate initiatives to make sure that sufficient supplies of major fertilizers are available. Despite the increase of fertilizer prices, sufficient supplies must be produced, advertised and distributed. The private sector should be encouraged to build adequate stock of fertilizers.

More resources need to be invested in seeds to develop superior rice varieties for specific environments. Farmers need to be encourages to use higher yielding rice varieties to get maximum yield from their small plots.

Electricity supply needs to be ensured for cost effective irrigation. Agricultural credit programs need to be introduced for farmers to buy best seeds, fertilizers and other inputs. The availability of these inputs and price control mechanism must happen simultaneously.

 

Crop Diversification

Although the Bangladeshi environment is capable of producing a number of crops at different times of the year, in most cases farmers cultivate only rice. A dependence on one crop can be disastrous if that crop fails or if yields don't match forecasts. Mono-cropping over a long period of time depletes the soil of certain essential nutrients. The reason for growing one crop, especially only rice, is that market demand for other crops is too low. The appropriate government authority should advocate for multiple crop seasons as a worthwhile business decision.

 

Increasing Crop Productivity

The population of Bangladesh is increasing, it is very important to increase crop productivity to cope with the increasing demand of food. The following are a few measures that can be taken to increase crop productivity:

• Use of modern and improved quality fertilizers (organic and inorganic)
• More research on high yield seeds
  
• Timely irrigation
• Increase the knowledge base of farmers in terms of applying modern methods of crop production
• Scientific and modern pest management schemes
• Crop diversification
• Emphasis on cultivating non-rice crops
• Use of modern cultivation equipment
• Improved method of planting and harvesting
• Equitable agricultural credit schemes
• 
  

 Alternate Options to Present Pricing System

Poor farmers grow crops throughout the year, but don’t get reasonable prices all year. Government and private companies usually buy crops at a fixed price, without consulting farmers on what a fair cost is. Through a cooperative, farmers could enhance their crop output per distributor and empower themselves with more leverage in baragining for fair prices.

 

Access

The Need to Bridge the Urban-Rural Gap

There is a large difference in the standard of living between urban and rural areas. The depth of poverty is greater in rural areas. If development in urban areas continues to outpace rural changes, rural-to-urban migration will continue in high numbers. Therefore, the urban-rural development gap needs to be addressed and to ensure that development and progress is uniform. The areas of concern are irrigation facilities, access to water, access to fertilizers, access to land, access to credit and low interest loans, proper education, health facilities, glass root cooperatives, improved access to rural market. Improvement of transport facilities along with decrease of transportation cost has great significance for agriculture.

 

Education Interventions 

Adult literacy rates in rural Bangladesh must improve, as they have real consequences on household production. Efforts to increase literacy among women and children must serious, prolonged, and monitored. Child malnutrition rates decrease with the level of mother’s education, so emphasis needs to be placed on women in education. Different safety net activities like food for education, school feeding need to be strengthened and expanded to cover more rural areas.

Utilization

Health and Nutrition Interventions

Improving nutrition is crucial towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Well-nourished children perform better in school, grow into healthier adults and are able to give their own children a better life. The following interventions can be undertaken to improve health and nutrition of the community:

• Ensure adequate food utilization at the community level through diatary education campaigns
• Ensure potable water and adequate sanitation
• Community based health programmes like food for training for nutrition, health and hygiene can be introduced.
• Promotion programmes for greater use of iodized salt, vitamin-A supplementation and iron-based supplements to reduce iron deficiency anaemia.
• Safety net activities can be introduced to take care of maternal and child health and supplementary feeding.
• More and more health and nutrition assessments and monitoring need to be conducted.
• Proper vaccination programmes for children
• Advocating programmes for diet diversification and fortified foods.
• Awareness raising programmes for HIV/AID
• Easy and low cost or free access to public health care facilities should be ensured. Extreme poor and women headed households can be provided with subsidized health care facilities.

 

Vulnerability

 Improved Disaster Management

The Following are some interventions that can improve the disaster management:

• Farmers should be trained disaster preparedness and risk mitigation strategies
• Disaster resistant crops should be introduced
•  The humanitarian community should be ready in time of a disaster
• Necessary health and medical care facilities should be available
• The food market need to be reactivated as soon as the disaster is over