Bangladesh has gained resilience in terms of food production and food security and self-sufficiency in food grain
The Consultative Group of International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) comprises few institutions of repute that were aimed to help developing countries face their challenges towards food production and food security. Initially, before CGIAR stepped in, there were one or two such institutions for crops, like wheat and maize, working in isolation and, to some extent, in an uncoordinated fashion. Later, the areas of interventions expanded — for example to include rice, fish, agriculture etc — and as a result, more institutions developed to face the growing demand for researches in food and food systems.
The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) are the two institutions of CGIAR that have been working for a long time in Bangladesh. What has been the impact of the technology initiated by IRRI on the cost of producing rice? First, the yield rate of rice, reportedly, increased: modern aman varieties have 56 per cent higher yield than traditional aman. And modern boro rice has 175 per cent higher yield than traditional aus rice. The primary benefit of technological progress has, therefore, been reaped in the form of cost savings from rice production. Second, there have also been indirect benefits to the society. For example, the government has saved scarce foreign exchange that might otherwise have been spent for imports of food. As we know, there has been a decline in food imports since 1980s and Bangladesh is almost on the verge of food grain self-sufficiency.
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