Mohammad Alauddin

This book comprehensively examines the performance of Bangladeshi agriculture in light of the most recent thinking on economic development and the environment. It both analyses the experience during the last five decades and discusses the major issues and challenges with special emphasis on the prospects for sustainable agricultural development in the future. The authors emphasise the importance of distributional aspects of environmental change and development in relation to employment and poverty and also focus on gender issues - often ignored in traditional theory. Many of the issues that arise in Bangladesh in connection with the agricultural-development nexus are not unique to the country. Parallels exist elsewhere in the developing world and as such Bangladesh is useful as an example from which to draw conclusions about much of the developing world. Environment and Agriculture in a Developing Economy will therefore be of particular interest to developmental and environmental economists as well as international organisations and NGOs committed to environment and development issues.

The major challenges facing South Asia to achieve sustainable development are investigated, using case studies and applying new points of view in economic thought about the connection between development and the environment. After reviewing economic perspectives on development and the environment and South Asia's situation, particular issues such as depletion of natural resources and land degradation, the environmental impacts and consequences of extending markets, of technological change and property rights are examined. Environmental change and employment, income distribution and poverty, population growth and urbanisation are considered.