Needs and priorities of NARS for the management of natural resources: Bangladesh

Abstract

Bangladesh encompasses a wide range of agricultural environments reflected in the patterns of agriculture and the opportunities for agricultural development. The density of population is already one of the highest in the world (less than 0.1 ha per person) and the population is growing fast. During the last two decades agricultural production has increased at an annual rate of 1.8 percent. The area under non-cereal crops has declined and the production of pulses and spices has dropped. Forest resources and floodplain fisheries have declined significantly. The country is also highly vulnerable to environmental hazards: floods, droughts, salinity and coastal tidal surges, loss of land and soil resources, global warming, and any rise in sea level.

It is in this context that the paper discusses the needs of the national agricultural research system (NARS) and its priorities for the management of natural resources and the sustainable development of agricultural production. The strategies include improved management of land and water resources to take advantage of the environmental diversity that exist: more efficient use of inputs, particularly fertilizer, and the conservation and utilization of the genetic diversity available for the improvement of crops, livestock, fisheries and forest production.

The greater emphasis on the integration of natural resource concerns into the research agenda implies a transition from a purely commodity orientation to a systems-based organization of research in which the natural resource objectives and the production-oriented objectives complement one another. Bangladesh plans to make increasing use of systems methods as an aid to strategic policy decisions, and as practical tools for resource management and the development of sustainable agricultural production systems. The paper discusses implications of these changes for the organization and management of research in Bangladesh.