Disappearance of the Bengali Family Farm
Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) organized a seminar titled “Disappearance of the Bengali Family Farm” on August 3, 2022, in the BIDS Conference Room. Geof Wood, Emeritus Professor of International Development, Department of Social and Policy Sciences, University of Bath was the speaker of this seminar. M. A. Sattar Mandal, Emeritus Professor of Agricultural Economics, Bangladesh Agricultural University attended this seminar as the Discussant. The seminar was held in hybrid format.
Professor Wood’s study exhibited that, the gradual change between the land owners and their farms has been developing a new kind of rural economy in the rapid urbanization growth. He added that a change of trend in agriculture is happening in Bangladesh where bargaining power and real labor wage have been increasing, and the relation between the land owners and their land has been changing, which may result in the disappearance of farming lands by 2050. Professor Wood also pointed, to accommodate the ever-increasing population, we are losing farmlands to urbanization. Diversity has arrived in the methods of agriculture in this country; mechanization has replaced traditional methods. People of Bangladesh are leaving family farms for many reasons such as rural infrastructure and expansion of communication systems, garment production, international migration, and remittances.
The seminar was attended by the Honorable Planning Minister of Bangladesh Mr. M. A. Mannan, MP, the chairman of Power and Participation Research Centre (PPRC) Dr. Hossain Zillur Rahman, Former Professor of Dhaka University Dr. Mahbub Ullah, BIDS researchers, academicians, development practitioners, and journalists. The Director General of BIDS, Dr. Binayak Sen chaired the event.