Why are Bangladesh and the neighbouring state of West Bengal the home of some of the world's poorest people when the region was once legendary for its agricultural abundance? Why are the current rice yields among the world's lowest when the region's farmland is among the most fertile? This book explores the reasons. The region's agricultural performance from 1949-80 is documented, and then analyzed in terms of underlying demographic, technological and institutional determinants. The neo-Malthusian view that over-population ...
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Why are Bangladesh and the neighbouring state of West Bengal the home of some of the world's poorest people when the region was once legendary for its agricultural abundance? Why are the current rice yields among the world's lowest when the region's farmland is among the most fertile? This book explores the reasons. The region's agricultural performance from 1949-80 is documented, and then analyzed in terms of underlying demographic, technological and institutional determinants. The neo-Malthusian view that over-population is the main cause of impoverishment in Bangladesh and West Bengal is challenged. The author identifies the key technological constraint to agricultural growth as water control - irrigation, drainage, and flood control - which in turn requires the development of institutions for co-operation above the level of the individual farm. He argues that the fundamental barrier to fulfillment of the region's great agricultural potential is an agrarian structure which is not only inequitable but also inefficient.
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