Agriculture and the Environment

Primitive societies obtained food through hunting and gathering. Although some food is obtained from oceans and fresh waters, 95% of the human population’s protein and most of its calories are obtained from traditional land-based agriculture of crops and livestock. The major agricultural challenge facing us today is to achieve sustainable production of crops.       

                 

Crops

Most of the world’s food is provided by only 14 crop species. Of these 14, six species provide more than 80% of the total calories consumed by human beings either directly or indirectly. Other crops, called forage, are important food for domestic animals.

It is useful to group crops into cash crops and subsistence crops:

Cash crops are grown to be sold or traded in a large market. e.g., tea, tobacco, jute, etc.

Subsistence crops are used directly for food by the farmer or sold locally where the food is used directly. e. g., rice, wheat, etc.  Some cash crops may provide nonfood products (latex from rubber trees).

Seasonal Crop Species in Bangladesh

Cropping seasons in Bangladesh can be broadly divided into two: Rabi (dry period; October to February) and Kharif (wet; March to September). Although some of the crops are sown in one season they are harvested in another season, i.e., there is overlapping of seasons. Again crops are also divided into different groups as cereals, pulses, fibre crops, oilseeds, root crops, vegetables, spice crops, fruit crops, etc.