Country Profile > Bangladesh

Location

Situated in South Asia, Bangladesh has a total area of 144,000 km2. Bangladesh is bordered in the West, North, and East by India, on the South East by Myanmar (Burma), and on the South by the Bay of Bengal, with a total boundary length of 4,246 km2. Bangladesh has a tropical monsoon climate.

Agricultural sector

Agriculture is one of the largest sectors of the economy. It comprises 20% of the country's GDP, whilst employing 60% of the total labour force. Major agricultural products include cotton, rice, jute, tea, wheat, cane, oilseeds, potatoes, beef, milk, poultry, tobacco, pulses, spices, and fruit (FAOSTAT, 2005-2006). Rice is produced on 60% of all cropped land in Bangladesh. Jute is the main cash crop of Bangladesh, it produces about one-quarter of the total jute supply of the world. The combined total exports of jute and jute products represents 13–15% of Bangladesh's annual export earnings. The fishery sector has also an important role in the economy of Bangladesh, and it has grown notably in the last years. The land is fertile, but yields are usually low due to a lack of capital for input. The land use is divided as follows: arable land 55%, permanent crops 3%, others 42% (CIA, 2007).

Brief overview of organic farming

The organic sector in Bangladesh emerged in 1988. By 2006, Bangladesh became the second country in Asia with total hectares of land under organic management. The total land under organic cultivation is estimated to be about 177,700 hectares, accounting for approximately 2% of the total agricultural area. In 2002, 100 organic farms were operating in Bangladesh (IFOAM & FiBL, 2006). There is also the practice of Organic shrimp farming in Bangladesh.

Brief overview of key organic products

Certified organic produce from Bangladesh includes tea, shrimps, cotton, and rice. These products are mainly exported. So far, there is no evidence of a domestic market for organic products.

The network

A grassroots initiative, called Nayakrishi Andolon (New Agriculture Movement) began in 1988 with the support of the UBINIG (Policy Research for Development Alternatives). The aim of the movement was to create a community-based work, which was organic in nature. They intended to incorporate traditional knowledge with newer scientific innovations suitable for both farmers and the environment. According to the IDRC, there are presently more than 2000 farmers all over Bangladesh engaged in Nayakrishi agriculture.

International Trade Center

UNCTAD/WTO

Organic Farming

Increasingly, organic farming is defined by formal standards regulating production methods, and in some cases, final output. Two types of standard exist, voluntary and legislated. As early as the 1970s, private associations created standards, against which organic producers could voluntarily have themselves certified. In the 1980s, governments began to produce organic production guidelines. Beginning in the 1990s, a trend toward legislation of standards began, most notably the EU-Eco-regulation developed in the European Union.

In 1991, the European Commission formulated the first government system to regulate organic labeling. In one go, the European Regulation (EEC) 2092/91 set the rules in 12 countries, creating a huge market.Organic certification, which until then was a voluntary quality control system, became mandatory to all operations and was also to be applied for imports. In the meantime, Europe had become the most prominent market place for organic products and an increasing number of suppliers all over the world accepted this niche as a new challenge and a rewarding option to export high quality and high priced speciality products. All these supplies, of course, had to comply with the requirements of the European market and thus the Regulation (EEC) N° 2092/91 became a universal standard for organic production systems

An international framework for organic farming is provided by the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM), the international democratic umbrella organization established in 1972. For IFOAM members, organic agriculture is based upon the Principles of Organic Agriculture and the IFOAM Norms. The IFOAM Norms consist of the IFOAM Basic Standards and IFOAM Accreditation Criteria.

The IFOAM Basic Standards are a set of "standards for standards." They are established through a democratic and international process and reflect the current state of the art for organic production and processing. They are best seen as a work in progress to lead the continued development of organic practices worldwide. They provide a framework for national and regional standard-setting and certification bodies to develop detailed certification standards that are responsive to local conditions.

Legislated standards are established at the national level, and vary from country to country. In recent years, many countries have legislated organic production, including the EU nations (1990s), Japan (2001), and the US (2002). Non-governmental national and international associations also have their own production standards. In countries where production is regulated, these agencies must be accredited by the government.

Since 1993 when EU Council Regulation 2092/91 became effective, organic food production has been strictly regulated in the UK.

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History of organic farming

The organic movement began as a reaction of agricultural scientists and farmers against the industrialization of agriculture. Advances in biochemistry, (nitrogen fertilizer) and engineering (the internal combustion engine) in the early 20th century led to profound changes in farming. Research in plant breeding produced hybrid seeds. Fields grew in size and cropping became specialized to make efficient use of machinery and reap the benefits of the green revolution. Technological advances during World War II spurred on post-war innovation in all aspects of agriculture, resulting in such advances as large-scale irrigation, fertilization, and the use of pesticides. Ammonium nitrate, used in munitions, became an abundantly cheap source of nitrogen. DDT, originally developed by the military to control disease-carrying insects among troops, was applied to crops, launching the era of widespread pesticide use.

In Germany, Rudolf Steiner's Spiritual Foundations for the Renewal of Agriculture, published in 1924, led to the popularization of biodynamic agriculture.

The first use of the term organic farming is by Lord Northbourne. The term is derived from his concept of "the farm as organism" ^[5] and which he expounded in his book, Look to the Land (1940), wherein he described a holistic, ecologically balanced approach to farming.

The British botanist, Sir Albert Howard studied traditional farming practices in Bengal, India. He came to regard such practices as superior to modern agricultural science and recorded them in his 1940 book, An Agricultural Testament and adopted Northbourne's terminology in his book "The Soil and Health: A Study of Organic Agriculture" in 1947.

Lady Eve Balfour, author of the organics classic The Living Soil, established the pioneering Haughley Experiment on her Suffolk farm in 1939 that ran for more than 40 years.

In the US, J.I. Rodale popularized organic gardening among consumers during the 1940s.

The Japanese farmer and writer Masanobu Fukuoka invented a no-till system for small-scale grain production that he called Natural Farming. In the early 1940s.

In 1972, the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM), was founded in Versailles, France. IFOAM was dedicated to the diffusion of information on the principles and practices of organic agriculture across national and linguistic boundaries.

In the 1980s, various farming and consumer groups worldwide began pressing for government regulation of organic production. This led to legislation and certification standards being enacted beginning in the 1990s.

Since the early 1990s, the retail market for organic farming in developed economies has grown about 20 per cent annually due to increasing consumer demand. While small independent producers and consumers initially drove the rise of organic farming, meanwhile as the volume and variety of "organic" products grows, production is increasingly large-scale.

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