Environmental situation Natural resources under threat by economic growth and climate change

Although agriculture in Bangladesh contributes only 13 per cent of the country’s value creation, some 37 per cent of the working population is employed in the agricultural sector. Rice is the most important crop. Several harvests a year are possible as the fertile lowlands are regularly flooded. Bangladesh is the world’s third biggest producer of rice after China and India, growing 36.4 million tonnes a year.

So far, food production has kept pace with population growth, however Russia’s war of aggression on Ukraine has driven up the price of imported food dramatically. The government is trying to respond with subsidies, also as a way to counteract inflation. The country’s unstable climatic conditions further increase the risk of food crises. Floods are becoming more severe, with the result that harvests are being wiped out and improvements to infrastructure are being washed away. Experts reckon that climate change is likely to exacerbate these problems even further in the future, and that agricultural production will decline as a result.