ALSA 2025 meeting

The economic development model that Bangladesh has pursued soon after its independence over fifty years ago prioritized export oriented industrial development courting foreign investments at the expense of promoting domestic economies including sustainable rural agriculture regardless of whether those investments benefit Bangladeshis. This article posits that Bangladesh’s economic development is only possible through a genuine agricultural revolution, as was contemplated at the time of its independence, that was thwarted by structural adjustments policies of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank and its sole focus on export-oriented industrialization. Bangladesh remains an agrarian based economy, with over 40% of the population engaged in farming. As an alternative to Bangladesh’s future, this article offers agro-ecology as a sustainable economic development framework for Bangladesh which is consistent with its constitutional protections for peasants and agriculture as well as the guaranteed right to a livelihood. An ecological based agrarian policy also has the potential to address gendered labor roles that displace rural women workers to urban areas in service of export-oriented industries. Finally, this article offers Nayakrishi Andolon, New Agricultural Movement as an empirically proven pathway towards an equitable and ecological future.