A Review of

National Agriculture Policy,

Bangladesh

Course Title: Rural Urban Settlement System

Date: 23 November, 2017

Submitted by
Muhaiminul Islam
Raghav Syangdyan
Abdur Rahman Shajib
Tanha Tabassum Tisha
Emerging Constrains and Possible Way out:
Reviewing Agriculture Sector Policies of GoB from Settlement
Systems Perspective

Agriculture, being one of the most significant strength of Bangladesh has been a very important sector
for the GoB (Government of Bangladesh). To sustainably manage this sector GoB has been initiating and
continuously revising National Agriculture Policy (NAP), National Agriculture Extension Policy (NAEP) and
many related policies and guidelines. From the perspective of rural urban settlement system, this study
tries to explore the integration or segregation of rural and urban grains in these agriculture focused
policies, especially reviewing National Agriculture Policy 1999 (NAP-1999).

With a vision to achieve self-sufficiency in food and nutrition NAP-1999 has set up 18 goals, of which
focus has been given on modernizing the agricultural system by integrating updated technologies with
agriculture, including farmers, their trainers, researchers, the market as well as the private sectors. The
National Agriculture Extension Policy (NAEP) plays vital role for serving these technology and support
from top level policy makers and researchers to root level farmers. Here we can find a flow from urban
to rural, or we can say this a flow from center to periphery. This flow is in an intangible form, for
example in the form of information, knowledge, technique or technology. Seldom has flow or
continuation or any kind of identification in spatial form not been addressed in the policy. Whatever, the
according to the World Banks reports this can be confirmed that Bangladesh has been quite successful
in reducing poverty and achieving food security by strengthening agricultural sector since 2000.

Yet from human settlement perspective there are some issues related to the settlement system, which
are still unidentified in the NAP-1999, NAEP-19996, Draft NAP-2012 and other agricultural sectors. It is
quite understandable that in 1999 issues like rapid urbanization and rural to urban migration was not
too severe, but eventually these issues has become a great threat to food security, not only nationwide
but also worldwide. Reduction of cultivable land has been addressed as one of the major constrain in
NAP-1999 and NAEP-2012, but the main reasons behind this shrinkage and how to get rid of this, has yet
not concerned with significance in the policy guidelines. As a result, in spite of remarkable progress in
agricultural research, its application and increase in productivity, the reduction of agriculturally active
land has decreased in average 28.8 thousand hectares (NAEP-2012,p-2). To face this challenge policy
should also focus on reducing rural to urban migration and massive urban expansion to agricultural
regions. Moreover the conventional agriculture and non-agriculture biased definition of rural and urban
areas also should be rethought. Without incorporating agricultural practice and activities to urban areas
and without providing modern technological facilities to the agrarian societies progression towards
achieving food security would not be possible. For example the contemporary ideas of Urban
Agriculture, Edible Landscape, Productive Eco-scape, Agro-polis, Rooftop gardening etc. are needed to
be synthesized with respect to our context and addressed in the policy guidelines as soon as possible, in
a holistic way.
References:
Van Veenhuizen, R. (Ed.). (2006). Cities farming for the future: Urban agriculture for green and productive
cities. IDRC.

Lovell, S. T. (2010). Multifunctional urban agriculture for sustainable land use planning in the United
States. Sustainability, 2(8), 2499-2522.

Mougeot, L. J. (2000). Urban agriculture: Definition, presence, potentials and risks, and policy challenges.

Mougeot, L. J. (Ed.). (2010). Agropolis:" The Social, Political and Environmental Dimensions of Urban
Agriculture". Routledge.

Clouse, C. (2017). The design and implementation of agroecological strategies for urban and peri-urban
farming in the tropics: A case study of Havana, Cuba. Agroecology Ecosystems and Sustainability in the
Tropics

Smit, J., & Nasr, J. (1992). Urban agriculture for sustainable cities: using wastes and idle land and water
bodies as resources. Environment and urbanization, 4(2), 141-152.

Deelstra, T., & Girardet, H. (2000). Urban agriculture and sustainable cities. Bakker N., Dubbeling M.,
Gndel S., Sabel-Koshella U., de Zeeuw H. Growing cities, growing food. Urban agriculture on the policy
agenda. Feldafing, Germany: Zentralstelle fr Ernhrung und Landwirtschaft (ZEL), 43-66.

Philips, A. (2013). Designing urban agriculture: a complete guide to the planning, design, construction,
maintenance and management of edible landscapes. John Wiley & Sons.

Viljoen, A., & Howe, J. (Eds.). (2012). Continuous productive urban landscapes. Routledge.

Specht, K., Siebert, R., Hartmann, I., Freisinger, U. B., Sawicka, M., Werner, A. & Dierich, A. (2014).
Urban agriculture of the future: an overview of sustainability aspects of food production in and on
buildings. Agriculture and human values, 31(1), 33-51.

National Agriculture Policy Bangladesh, 1999

National Agriculture Policy Bangladesh, 2012 Draft

National Agriculture Extension Policy Bangladesh, 1996

National Agriculture Extension Policy Bangladesh, 2012