Agrarian change in Bangladesh and West Bengal has been a topic of great interest for researchers for many years. West Bengal and Bangladesh share similar agro-ecology and culture, but have different policies and institutions, and this has led to a large number of studies comparing agrarian change and transition in the two places. The higher rate of agricultural growth in West Bengal as compared to Bangladesh until the end of the 1980s has been attributed to land reforms undertaken in West Bengal. However, these comparative studies do not go beyond the mid-1990s. Since then, Bangladesh’s agricultural growth rate has surged ahead, and that of West Bengal has stagnated.
The role played by groundwater in the overall agrarian growth in the region has not been adequately reflected in the literature. The main purpose of this project is to fill these two research gaps, through two activities:
Compare and contrast the trends in agricultural growth in West Bengal and Bangladesh since the mid-1990s; and
Examine the role of policies and institutions that supported groundwater irrigation and the contribution of groundwater irrigation to this agrarian transition.
The purpose of this comparative exercise is to understand the policy differences that account for differences in agricultural growth in West Bengal and Bangladesh, given their very similar agro-ecological conditions. This can help to inform policy to better support agricultural development in the two locations.
For more information, please contact Dr Aditi Mukherji ([email protected]).