How does Bangladesh, which feeds 1600 million people, feed?

Mondo International Updated on 2024-02-19

And Bangladesh itself is a very populous country! Bangladesh has a population of 1600 million, ranking eighth in the world. At the same time, its land area is only 14750,000 square kilometers.

14.What is the concept of 750,000 square kilometers?

Compared to other provinces in our country, the region can only rank 21st.

Take Guangdong Province, the most populous province in China, as an example. The permanent population has reached 12.7 billion, but still more than 30 million less than Bangladesh. However, Guangdong Province has an area of more than 170,000 square kilometers, which is much larger than Bangladesh!

Crowded Bangladesh.

Due to its large population, limited land, and backward economic development, Bangladesh gives the overall impression of a low sense of existence, extreme poverty, and overcrowding!

So, the question arises, how can Bangladesh, which has such a small land area, feed this 1What about 600 million people?

This can only be said to be the favor of heaven!

Thanks to its unique geography and excellent rain and heat conditions, this land in Bangladesh may not be suitable for growing other things, but it is very suitable for growing rice!

As an important part of the Ganges Delta, almost all of Bangladesh is plain.

Coupled with its location in the low-latitude tropics, Bangladesh can achieve "three crops a year" for rice.

You must know that in most areas of Jiangnan in China, rice can only be harvested once a year.

Rice, which yields three bumper harvests a year, has become a staple food for the people of Bangladesh and has also provided a material basis for its population growth.

According to data released by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Bangladesh produced 56.9 million tons of rice in 2021, ranking third in the world, behind China and India.

It seems that Bangladesh is indeed a big rice producer!

But nothing can be grown on this land except rice.

As a result, rice has been the staple food of Bengalis for thousands of years.

However, the rice that Bangladeshis eat is still different from what we often eat in China. The rice they eat is very similar to what the Indians eat. It's all long-grain rice, and it doesn't taste good. It must be mixed with curry or miso soup to be swallowed. 。

The eating habits of Bangladeshis are very similar to those of Indians. The main curries, rice, desserts, tea drinks, etc., they eat are very similar. In addition, people on both sides look similar, so many times they can be confused with each other. I don't know.

Overall, Bangladesh has developed to 1 todayThe 600 million population is largely due to its flat terrain and excellent rain and heat conditions.

However, there are two sides to everything. On the one hand, abundant heat and rain allow rice to grow three times a year, but on the other hand, it also often causes floods.

Although Bangladesh is mostly plain, its disadvantage is obvious, that is, the terrain is too low, and it is close to the sea, which is easy to cause "flooding" during the rainy season!

The average elevation in Bangladesh is only about 85 meters. There are only a handful of countries in the world that are lower than it.

In terms of climate, tropical Bangladesh does not have the four distinct seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter like we do.

The year in Bangladesh is divided into three seasons, namely summer (March to June), rainy season (July to October) and winter (November to February).

Since Bangladesh is located almost entirely in the southern zone, its so-called winter is only a small rainfall and not cold.

Summers in Bangladesh are truly torturous. The temperature can often soar above 45, and the heat is so hot that it makes people doubt their lives!

Of course, the most uncomfortable thing in Bangladesh is the long and wet rainy season.

As we mentioned earlier, Bangladesh has very good rain and heat conditions, and rice can be harvested three times a year. However, the negative effects of such hot and rainy conditions are that excessive rainfall often leads to flooding, which inundates farmland and often causes damage to rice crops. Cut production.

Bangladesh has experienced several great famines due to floods in its history!

Therefore, the rainy and hot situation in Bangladesh is not something to envy. The controllability is too poor. When it's good, it's true that it can be harvested three times a year, and when it's bad, there is no harvest!

The instability of agricultural production has also largely limited the development of industry and commerce in Bangladesh.

Apart from textiles and garments, Bangladesh has few other prominent industries.

The garment processing industry is the backbone of Bangladesh's economy. Garment exports account for nearly 90% of the country's annual export revenue!

It's hard to imagine what would have happened to the tens of millions of Bangladeshi workers without the garment processing industry.

Fortunately, Bangladesh's current demographic dividend is very sufficient. A total of 1600 million, of which young and middle-aged labor force accounts for the majority.

Most of the workers in the garment factories are young Bangladeshi women.

It is precisely because Bangladesh has a large number of cheap young labor force that more and more garment companies have moved their production lines there in recent years.

Garment processing has indeed eased employment in Bangladesh to a certain extent and promoted economic development.

However, we are still facing a very cruel reality: relying only on the low-end garment processing industry can only solve the problem of food and clothing for Bangladeshis at best. It's impossible to be rich!

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