Facilitating Smallholder Farmers’ Market Access
In the OIC Member Countries
62
The reforms, combined with investments in technology and critical regulatory changes in
input markets (the deregulation of pump sets in the 1990s and the exceptions granted to
import hybrid rice varieties are two examples) brought about a major transformation in
Bangladesh. No longer a chronically food-deficit, food-aid-dependent country, it had
become nearly self-sufficient in rice, the main staple.
Self-sufficiency in food grains remains the central objective of national agricultural
strategies. Government policies and interventions have maintained incentives—for
example, output price supports and fertilizer subsidies—for domestic rice and wheat
production to expand. At the same time, policies have been put into place to protect poor
consumers. Sales of rice were subsidized until the early 1990s, and important, extensive
safety nets have been devised, involving food for work and food transfers (in the form of
wheat, for example).124
National trade policy has undergone major reforms. Bangladesh reduced tariffs for
industrial products in the 1980s and especially the early 1990s; in the latter period, it also
liberalized private trade in rice and wheat. As a result, domestic output prices for rice (the
main agricultural product in terms of value) and wheat have been near border prices in
most years since the early 1990s. These reforms substantially reduced pervasive price
distortions in Bangladeshi agriculture, with some exceptions, such as sugarcane and
chemical fertilizers.125
ACCESS TO FINANCE
Based on the World Bank’s Global
Financial Inclusion database,126
depicts the share of
surveyed individuals who had an
account at a financial institution
and the share of surveyed
individuals (age 15+) who had
taken out a loan. In rural and
urban areas, a relatively large
share of individuals had recently
borrowed money; 37 percent of
rural respondents had obtained a
loan in the past year, compared to
just over 41 percent of urban
respondents. In rural areas, 38
percent of households had an
account at a formal financial
institution, compared to 46
percent of urban households.
124 World Bank (2013e).
125 World Bank (2013e).
126 Global Findex (World Bank 2014c).
FIGURE 33: FINANCIAL SERVICES IN RURAL AND URBAN
BANGLADESH
Source: Global Findex (World Bank 2014c).