Bangladesh agriculture experienced a reasonably rapid rate of growth during the post-independence period. Analysis of changes in real income and wages shows that such a growth had little impact on the distribution of income or alleviating poverty in the rural areas. In fact, this paper argues that in Bangladesh agriculture inequality in the distribution income, produced by the interaction among institutional, technological and demographic factors has made it impossible either to alleviate poverty or to permit sustained growth towards self-sufficiency.

Unequal distribution of income limiting the internal demand for foodgrain is the critical constraint faced by Bangladesh agriculture rather than absence of appropriate technology or shortfall in required investment. Theoretically, adequate growth in internal demand for rice could be ensured under several alternative scenarios in an economy such as Bangladesh. On closer scrutiny none of them seemed feasible. On the other hand, producing crops for meeting external demand and thereby overcoming demand constraint on growth might have adverse repercussions on the incidence of rural poverty through its unfavourable effect on food prices and real wages. Under these circumstances it is argued that the burden of poverty alleviation would have to be borne either by growth in the non-agricultural sector or by directly redistributive measures in agriculture or by a combination of both.