A large part of Bangladesh's farmland is still outside sustainable cultivation, according to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS). More effort is needed to bring about 56 per cent of land under sustainable farming, the agency said.

The findings come from the BBS report "Productive and Sustainable Agriculture Survey 2025", released on Monday (30 June) in the BBS conference room at Agargaon in the capital.

According to BBS, 55.63 per cent of the country's farmland is not being used productively and sustainably, while 44.37 per cent is being used sustainably. Some 78.79 per cent of farmland was used profitably in at least one of the past three years, 2022 to 2024, meaning farmers earned real income from it after deducting production costs.

The report says nearly a third of farmers are still outside farmland protection. Meanwhile, 69.16 per cent of farmland is held by farming households that have access to some form of risk management, such as agricultural loans, crop insurance cover or farm diversification.

On the extent of soil degradation, the report says 72.75 per cent of farmland is held by households at least 50 per cent of whose land suffers from soil degradation. This signals declining land quality and a threat to long-term production.

The report adds that 81.86 per cent of farmland gets enough irrigation water. And 56.95 per cent of farmland is held by households that followed two of the eight recommended fertiliser practices, which shows a large share is still not conscious about chemical fertiliser use.

Sustainable pesticide management is followed on 51.37 per cent of farmland. A large share uses pesticides carelessly, which is worrying.

The survey found that 60.12 per cent of farmland lies in areas where unskilled workers earn more than the national agricultural wage. Although the figure is moderate, farm wages are good in some areas. It also found that 98.83 per cent of farming households did not face food shortage or crisis last year, and 89.35 per cent of farmland belongs to households that are its permanent owners.

The event was chaired by BBS Director General Mohammad Mizanur Rahman. Aleya Akter, secretary of the Statistics and Informatics Division, was chief guest. Special guests were Md Mahbubul Haque Patwary, additional secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture, and Mohammad Masud Rana Chowdhury, additional secretary of the Statistics and Informatics Division.

The keynote was presented by Muhammad Rafiqul Islam, director of the Sustainable Agriculture Statistics (SAS) project. Alauddin, director of the BBS Agriculture Wing, also spoke, and Dr Dipankar Roy, joint secretary of the Statistics and Informatics Division, moderated the question-and-answer session.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.