Over the decades, agricultural methods have intensified prodigiously, bringing about huge rise in crop yields, innovatively feeding a growing global population.
In the coming decades, however, meeting agricultural needs will be far more difficult. The world's population has reached 8 billion and is projected to grow to 9.7 billion by 2050, which puts immense pressure on global food demand.
On the other hand, geopolitical instability and self-serving attempts to ensure national food security will further influence global agricultural flows.
To compound the issue, most countries of the world, including Bangladesh, have steadily been losing valuable arable land due to: i) Environmental degradation brought about by climate change and ii) alternative uses of agricultural land.
Nearly 69,000 hectares of agricultural land have been shrinking annually in the country due to rapid industrialization, unplanned urbanization, increased rural settlements, etc. The agricultural industry is left to tackle -- soil degradation, loss of biodiversity, increasing cost of farming, rising food prices, and threats to national food security.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the increase in food production will be most needed in developing countries. Therefore, the time is now to utilize newer farming concepts and technologies in Bangladesh.
An innovative and efficient technique would be the use of spectral analysis from satellite GIS (Geographic Information Systems) data, which provide basic information on the nutrient load of soil, cropping trends, and riverine mineral content.
This can be further augmented by field-level survey, and analyses using spectrometers or remote sensing devices to eventually chart a Fertility Map for the entire country. This can then be used to construct a centralized Crop Production and Management System.
The system would identify which plot is rich in which nutrients and match that to the requirements of specific crops. Agriculture officials can have access to real-time information, enabling them to guide farmers to make timely adjustments to achieve improved outputs.
This comprehensive and predictive approach will allow us to plan and monitor crop production, assess and preserve soil quality, and help economize and optimize agricultural output.
The country should also focus on producing no more than a select number of essential crops on a plurality of arable lands, which would contribute to national food and economic security by maximizing local agriculture, eschewing reliance on imported staples.
These crops would ideally include rice, lentil, mustard, potato, onion, tea, jute, cotton, and corn (and a few others). The essential crops would be “zoned” and land-matched to grow under the aforementioned managed production system.
This would not only ensure higher yields, but also make logistics more efficient, including storage, distribution, and points of sales.
Crops and vegetables beyond the essential ones can be innovatively grown elsewhere -- on less fertile soil, in backyard and rooftop gardens, through vertical farming, on hydroponic farms, etc.
These steps would require coordinated national level farming for sustainability and food security, matched by: i) Evolving farming practices focused on long-term profitability, and ii) changing consumption patterns.
Farmers would have to be incentivized by ensuring that the farm-to-table returns are fairly distributed back to the farmers, with “managed intermediation” replacing the prevalent profiteering middlemen.
On the other hand, consumers would be encouraged to make consumption adjustments -- for example, consuming more maize (replacing wheat) and potato, switching to mustard oil, etc.
Another burning issue is the farming of crops that are detrimental to the arability of lands. When a harmful crop is cultivated on an arable land, there is massive use of water, large-scale deforestation, and contamination of air and water systems. These factors contribute to the eroding fertility of land.
Instead of cultivating crops that are harmful for the land, alternative crops that are necessary for us should be cultivated. Related job losses can be resolved by growing essential crops on lands used for cultivation of such crops.
These are a few of the innovative approaches that Bangladesh can take to tackle the impending national food security threats. Adopting new technologies, analyzing and mapping our land, and strategically matching the land with suitable crops can help us attain greater efficiency.
As Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has pointed out, there is no greater need now than ensuring national food security. The message is simple -- we need to produce more on the scarce land that we have, intelligently, locally, and optimally.
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Shama-e Zaheer is Chairman, Mir Cement Ltd, and Director, Operations, Mir Akhter Hossain Ltd. He has an MBA in Finance from Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA. Email: shamaezaheer@gmail.com.