Project final report

Promoting socially inclusive and sustainable agricultural intensification in West Bengal and Bangladesh - Final report

Date released
01 March 2022
ISBN
978-1-922787-10-1
Publication Code
FR2021-085
Authors

Michaela Cosijn (CSIRO) and Christian Roth (CSIRO) (Eds), Edith Cowan University (ECU), Australian National University (ANU), Livelihoods and Natural Resource Management Institute (LNRMI), the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT), Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU), PRADAN, CDHI and Shushilan (Contributors)

Overview

This project aimed to promote more socially inclusive and environmentally sustainable agricultural intensification in West Bengal and Bangladesh, with an emphasis on water.

Food production in India and Bangladesh has increased and intensified over the last 50 years. This is due largely to high-yielding crop varieties, better animal breeds and animal husbandry, aquaculture, fertilisation, mechanisation, irrigation, and pesticides. Agricultural intensification is increasing food production and meeting demand for food.

This has come at the cost of an increasing social disparity between more affluent land holders and socially disadvantaged groups such as landless or marginal smallholders, women-headed households, and tribal minorities. Affluent land holders are in a stronger position to capture the benefits and can better absorb the risks of agricultural intensification. Marginal groups are more exposed to unintended consequences of agricultural intensification.

View the project page