Country Context

Administrative units

In Bangladesh, the administrative hierarchy has historically been defined by Divisions containing Regions containing Districts.

The ‘Region’ administrative area is no longer used in Bangladesh, and where District level information is available, we have not recorded the Region.

In general, data from 1982 – 2003 is reported by Region only, and not the more granular District.
In general, data from 2003 – 2016 is reported by District.

We have an outside understanding of the division-region definitions as they existed for the years 1982 - 2015, and have included the appropriate division for the reported data, even if the source table does not provide it.

Variations in the spelling of administrative area names have been dropped, in favor of the most common spelling of the name.

Units of measure

1.01605 Bales = 5.60 MT
2.47105 Acre = 1 Hectare
1.01605 Maund = 27.22 MT

Crop Data

Context

Major Crops are defined as Aus Rice, Boro Rice, Aman Rice, Potato, Wheat, and Jute.

Seasons

There are two main growing seasons in Bangladesh, the Rabi and Kharif seasons.
Kharif crops are grown in the spring or summer season and harvested in late summer or in early winter. (~July - Oct)
Rabi crops are sown in winter and harvested in the spring or early summer.   (~Oct - March)
A `sub-season,’ pre-Kharif, is defined, but not used to report in these sources.
A detailed crop calendar is provided.
The Year provided in the source refers to the time period from April to April. For example, 2015-16 refers to April 2015 to April 2016

A note on Aus, Aman and Boro

We treat Aus, Aman and Boro as the same crop (rice), being cultivated under different production systems. Bangladeshi sources treat Aus, Aman and Boro as different crops. In fact, the Aus, Aman, and Boro label is best understood as a mixture of season, crop variety, and production system. Bangladeshi sources report rice production in greater detail than we have recorded here, including more information on production system (broadcast vs transplant) and genetic varieties.

Name	Season	Crop variety	Production system
Aus	Usually sown in the pre-monsoon season (March/April) Grown during the kharif season Harvested between July and August	Photoperiod insensitive Thermosensitive, perform best under summer conditions Dwarf in stature Grown under rainfed conditions and are prone to both drought and flooding Low yield and poor quality Growing period of 80–120 days	Broadcast
Aman	They are sown (broadcast) in March or transplanted following the aus harvest Mature throughout the kharif season Flower in October/November Generally cultivated December-January	Traditionally the main rice crop in Bangladesh Photoperiod sensitive Longer growth duration (120–160 days) means they are more productive than the aus rices Produce high quality, fine white grains	Broadcast and transplanted
Boro	Sown in October/November Transplanted around December/January Generally cultivated March-May	Photoperiod insensitive Adapted to mild winter conditions, showing some degree of cold tolerance Traditionally, have only been grown on land which retains sufficient water throughout the rabi season to support crop growth; increasingly adopted with improved irrigation High yield	Broadcast and transplanted; similar to transplanted aman both in their method of cultivation and crop habit

Methodology

Major Crops are surveyed using direct observation of agricultural fields and facilities. All other crops are surveyed by interviewing farmers about recent planting/harvesting activity.
Surveyors used ~10,000 sampling locations, visited 4 times a year, to estimate agricultural data.
Bangladesh has a well-defined crop calendar, and the surveyors report using the crop calendar to accurately capture each crops production and area planted.
When ‘Yields’ are provided by the Agricultural Yearbook sources, they are calculated through precise measurement of a small subset of the sampling locations.
When `Yields` have not been provided in the source, we have calculated the yields based on reported area and production.
In some cases, different crop variants were tracked in source documents, but only Total Crop figures were reported here. Source documents report Local , Pajam, Broadcast, HYV for Aman Rice; Broadcast, Local Transplanted, and HYV for Aus Rice; Local, HYV and Hybrid for Boro Rice; Local, HYV and Indian for Potato.

Bangladesh Data Book