Rural-urban interaction and its implication for rural development in Bangladesh

Abstract

The pattern, mode and phase of rural-urban interaction are strikingly different between the lower Meghna floodplain in Chandpur District and the Barind tract in Bogra District. In our study villages in Chandpur, we found that villagers were quite mobile, with the majority of households being employed in the nonagricultural sector, and also involved actively in markets and marketing systems. In the Barind tract, on the other hand, the villagers were "land-locked', and their interaction with the outside world was single-faceted, consisting in their marketing of surplus rice. Recent changes in national occupational structure in Bangladesh are mainly due to structural changes in rural areas, where there has been an increase in nonfarm jobs such as sales, services, transportation and other productive work. The distinct difference between the two areas studied may partly be explained by the difference in agricultural systems. The village in the Barind tract is a typical rice-surplus area, where rice production is managed by large and medium farms, which comprise 60% of all households. On the other hand, farm households in Chandpur villages are all equally small, with very few landless farm households and almost no large farms among them. Their rice production is mainly for home consumption, and their household economy must rely heavily on nonagricultural sources of income. -from English summary