Agriculture, Safe Food and Environment
In recent decades, Bangladesh has achieved significant success in raising agricultural output, thus helping the country sustain a much larger population. However, the success has also led to many negative consequences for the environment, including its soil, water, and air. There are therefore now concerns about the sustainability of Bangladesh agriculture.
Added to this have been rising concerns about safety of food, starting from its production and extending through its storage, transportation, marketing, and consumption. Recognising the close relationship between agriculture, food safety and the environment, BAPA and BEN have decided to hold their 2027 annual conference on this theme, jointly with the Bangladesh Academy of Agriculture (BAAG), the national academy of distinguished agricultural scientists and professionals.
Agriculture and the food system in Bangladesh have witnessed in recent decades many changes that had significant consequences for the environment and food safety. Some of the important changes are outlined below:
1. Shifts in Cropping Systems
The traditional Aus (Kharif 1) – Aman (Kharif 2) – Rabi rotation, suitable for Bangladesh’s seasons, has given way to groundwater-dependent dry-season Boro rice, imparting to the country’s agriculture a growing monoculture characteristic. The crop production rose but water tables have fallen in many areas; and pulses, oilseeds and other Rabi crops that supplied affordable protein, moderated soil acidity, and maintained soil fertility have declined.
2. Rising Use of Agrochemicals
Chemical fertiliser and pesticide use has reached alarming proportions, leaving harmful residues in soil and, by consequence, in food. The chemical run-off reaching open water bodies is harming the fish stock both directly and indirectly through eutrophication. The chemicalisation of agriculture is affecting groundwater too. It is often proving harmful for the health of the agricultural workers.
3. Growth of Industrial & Caged Farming
Expansion of industrial and caged poultry, fisheries, and livestock has increased the supply of animal protein, but uncontrolled use of antibiotics and other chemicals threatens food safety and contributes to antimicrobial resistance through food, water, animals and the environment. Poorly managed waste from these production sites has become a new source of rural soil, water, and air pollution.
4. Mechanisation & Soil Health
Mechanisation has progressed, heralding a historical shift from pre-industrial to industrial agriculture. Mechanized tilling facilitates deeper ploughing, timely cultivation, higher productivity, and helps to overcome labor shortages. However, it is also threatening soil structure, and is reducing soil organic matter and micronutrients that are already declining due to chemicalisation of agriculture.
5. Climate Change, Coastal & Haor Impact
While agriculture is affecting the environment, changes in environment caused by climate change are in turn affecting Bangladesh’s agriculture. This feedback relationship is most pronounced in the coastal areas, where submergence, intrusion of saline water, and perennial waterlogging are giving rise to major challenges to agriculture. Similar challenges are also evident in other areas, such as the Haor area, where early rains and floods are more frequently destroying Boro rice, the main and often the only crop grown in the area. Shifts in rainfall pattern are affecting Bangladesh’s agriculture in other places too.
6. Rivers & Misguided River Policies
Upstream interventions and misguided river policies within the country have seriously affected the agriculture. Upstream dams and diversions on shared rivers have reduced dry-season flows, lowering irrigation water availability, accelerating siltation and salinity intrusion, and limiting groundwater recharge. Within the country, embankment-based Cordon approach to rivers has cut floodplains off from the water and silt that sustained their fertility, while impeding drainage, causing waterlogging. Equitable sharing of common rivers by co-riparian countries and an Open approach to river management are essential for the future of Bangladesh agriculture.
7. Agriculture in Hilly Regions
The environment of the hilly areas has probably been the greatest casualty of recent expansion of agriculture. The spread of plantation agriculture and indiscriminate application of plough-tilling have denuded hill slopes of tree cover and accelerated soil erosion and landslides. As a result, neighboring rivers and streams are getting filled up, obstructing drainage and causing floods and waterlogging.
8. Neglect of Agricultural Nutrition
Agriculture development efforts have focused more on the caloric value of food produced, neglecting the importance of its nutritional value. This has led to neglect of crops that are important for nutrition and figured prominently in the Bangladesh’s traditional cropping patterns.
9. Food Safety at Farm Level & Beyond
Increased chemicalization of agriculture might have already made food less safe for health. However, food may also be contaminated during storage, transportation, processing, and marketing through misuse of formalin and ripening agents, unauthorised colours, adulteration, and unhygienic preparation and serving in prepared food outlets.
10. Institutional & Market Shifts
Alongside the technological changes, agriculture in Bangladesh has witnessed profound institutional changes, including movement away from family-labor based, smallholder, subsistence agriculture to an agriculture geared towards market (including export) and based on hired labor of various types. These institutional changes have serious implications for the sustainability of agriculture and food safety.
Overall Goal: The overall goal of the conference is to discuss the impact of recent changes in agriculture on environment and food safety and to come up with policy recommendations geared at promotion of environmentally sustainable agriculture and food safety. The conference will allow discussing the issues in an integrated, multidisciplinary framework.
Specific Objectives
- Allow presentation and discussion of research on relevant issues concerning agriculture, food safety, and environment.
- Hear and discuss the experience of those waging struggle at the field-level against environmental harm caused by inappropriate agricultural practices.
- Hear and discuss the efforts that government, NGOs, and other agencies are making to ensure sustainability of agriculture and food safety.
- Formulate evidence-based policy recommendations for the government and civil society.
Call for Papers (Invited Topics)
Papers are invited from researchers, academics, field workers, and policy experts on the following topics:
Shifts in cropping systems and their consequences for the environment and food safety.
Increasing chemicalisation of agriculture and its impact on the environment and food safety.
Growth of industrial and caged livestock, poultry, and fisheries and impact on environment.
Growing mechanization of agriculture and the consequences for environment and food safety.
Climate change, upstream river interventions, domestic river policies and environmental sustainability.
Environmental consequences of expansion of agriculture in the hilly areas.
Food safety at the farm level and beyond (storage, transportation, processing, marketing).
Importance of nutritionally balanced food production and consumption.
Institutional changes and their implications for sustainability of agriculture and food safety.
Role of agricultural/food research organizations, media, political parties, and field organizations.
| Date | Milestone |
|---|---|
| 20 November 2026 | Deadline for abstracts (up to 350 words) |
| 25 November 2026 | Notification of abstract acceptance and invitation to submit full papers |
| 15 December 2026 | Deadline for submission of full papers |
| 30 December 2026 | Final decision on presentation (oral or poster) and session allocation |
| 8–9 January 2027 | Conference at KIB, Khamarbari, Dhaka |
Guidelines for Abstracts: Abstracts should be in Microsoft Word, using Times Roman 12-point font size, and need to include (i) full title of the paper; (ii) full name of the author(s); (iii) author(s) institutional affiliation(s); (iv) name of the corresponding author; and (v) a maximum of three keywords. Young researchers are also encouraged to apply for poster presentations under the same guidelines.
Submission Contacts
For Authors in Bangladesh
For Authors Abroad
Expected Participants & Outputs
Expected Participants: Academics, researchers, BAAG Fellows, ministry officials, development partners, NGOs, private agribusinesses, farmers’ organisations, grassroots activists, diaspora members through BEN, and the media.
Key Outputs: Conference Abstract Book, BAPA-BEN-BAAG Agenda for Action 2027 (Policy Recommendations), thematic policy briefs, edited conference volume, and a strengthened multidisciplinary network.
Organized jointly by Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon (BAPA), Bangladesh Environment Network (BEN), and Bangladesh Academy of Agriculture (BAAG)
Convening Committee Contact: Alamgir Kabir, Member Secretary
(Email: alamgir.bapa@gmail.com | Phone: 01712-121221)
Secretariat: BAPA Office, Royal Unique Heights, Flat 1-B, Plot 4/A, B, C, Sobhanbag, Dhaka-1207.
Email: bapa2000@gmail.com | Office Contact: S. I. Khalid (01329725825 / 01724482720)
Abstract Submission
Deadline: 20 November 2026
Abstracts up to 350 words.
