Over the last two decades Bangladesh has achieved steady economic and agricultural growth. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) annual growth rate in the 1990s averaged over 4%, accelerating to over 6% since 2006. While agricultural growth was below 2% per year between 1970 and 1989; the growth accelerated to about 3% in the 1990s, and to over 4% during the last five years (Khan and Hossain 1990, BBS 1998 and 2011). Overall poverty incidence declined from 58% to 32% between 1991/92 and 2010 (BBS HIES., 2003, BBS HIES., 2011). Over the past 30 years or so, the country has made significant achievements in food grain production and food availability (Hossain 2010). Furthermore, Bangladesh has achieved significant progress in reducing maternal and under‐5 mortality for which the country received special recognition at the Millennium Summit in 2010.

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