Trends in the availability of agricultural land in Bangladesh

Over the last 3 to 4 decades, agricultural land in Bangladesh has been showing decline. With a dense population of 160 million and high pressure on its natural resource base, decline in the availability of agricultural land has devastating consequences on the country’s ability to sustainably achieve self-sufficiency targets, as well as guarantee the food security of households with agriculture based livelihoods. The study aimed to quantify and map land availability and use in 1976, 2000 and 2010. Cropland, forests, water bodies, salt pan, tea estates and aquaculture (excluding homestead ponds) were counted as agricultural uses; and settlements and industries were counted as non-agricultural uses. Land lost to erosion, salinity and water-logging, and land reclaimed from sedimentation was mapped and measured.

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