Demographic Change and Food Production in Bangladesh, 1960-74

Bangladesh, the eighth most populous country in the world, provides an acute illustration of the recent concern over the precarious global balance between food supply and rapid population growth. A new nation with about 76 million people inhabiting 142 thousand square kilometers of land, Bangladesh is the most densely settled rural nation in the world. The economy of Bangladesh is overwhelmingly dominated by agriculture; it contributes over two-thirds of the gross national product and absorbs over three-fourths of the labor force.' Despite the predominance of agriculture and a presumption that there are classic comparative advantages to food production in Bangladesh, the country has consistently imported a significant fraction of its foodgrains, a fraction that has mounted in recent years. Production…