Being a fertile delta, it is no major surprise that agriculture is one of the most important sectors for the economy of Bangladesh. And among all the sectors of agriculture, the cultivation and production of crops are especially fascinating, considering the spans of arable land and the ever-increasing crop production that our farmers are able to eke out. But seeing as how there are almost a hundred different crops that are produced in Bangladesh, a number that is changing every year, and how the 64 districts specialize in different crops, it is very hard to get a data-based understanding of the current scenario of crop production in Bangladesh. Because all the Metric Tons and Acres and Yields are simply difficult to visualize and analyze. That is why Magpie Analytics has prepared a dashboard for easy visualization and analysis of the country’s crop production.
This dashboard has been divided into three separate reports. The first one is for the 6 major crops of our country. They have been highlighted in a report separate from all other crops because just these 6 crops alone account for the lion’s share of both production volume and area cultivated. In 2019, All other crops combined were cultivated on 8.34 Million Acres of land, and 25.10 Million Metric Tons of these crops were produced. In the same year, the 6 major crops were cultivated over 32.26 Million Acres of land and had a production volume of 55.64 Million Metric Tons.
First, let’s look at the 6 major crops report.
Loading up the dashboard, you are first greeted with a snapshot of the 6 major crops of Bangladesh from 2019 to all way back to 1981. In this initial overview, you can see at a glance the overall production of these crops and even the total area of land that was required to produce these crops. You can also find the yield. Then you can see the overall production of each crop in the donut chart, the yield on a line chart, and year-over-year comparisons of the production and area used for production on the area chart. Finally, on the bottom right, there is a ribbon chart highlighting only the production. But what kind of insights can we glean from this dashboard?
To start off, let’s only look at Amon Rice. With the slicer set for 1981-2019, we can see that both the overall yield and production has increased over the years. But what has changed is the breed of Amon rice produced? Before 1990, the variety of rice that farmers most preferred was the local variety. Then, HYV or High Yielding Variety of Amon started gaining popularity. Eventually, production of HYV Amon overtook the local variety in 1992, and it has since dwarfed the local variety in production ever since.
Correspondingly, the yield of Amon also jumped in 1990 from 0.53 (M.Ton/Acre) to 0.64 (M.Ton/Acre). In 2019, that yield stood at 0.66 (M.Ton/Acre), but where the production volume was 8.426 Million M.Tons in 1990, in 2019 it stood at 14.054 Million M.tons.
In fact, we can see this trend of shifting to producing HYV crops for all the major crops. HYV is currently the most popular variety for Aus Rice, Amon Rice, Boro Rice, Potato, and Wheat. In 2019, 72.08% of the production of all major crops was of the HYV variety.
Easily figuring out the most produced variety of major crops is only one of the things you can use this dashboard for. You could also see at a glance where in Bangladesh these crops are mostly produced. On the left side of the dashboard, there is a large map of Bangladesh with all 64 districts. You use this map to quickly filter by district and find out the region-specific information about one or more crops.
And then there is the second report named ‘Other Crops’ where you can find information about other crop types other than the major crops. These include Drugs & Narcotics, Fruits, Minor Crops, Minor Fibres, Summer Vegetables, and Winter Vegetables.
Using our dashboard, you can easily gain valuable information about these crops. For example, around 15 major winter vegetables are cultivated in Bangladesh, and if you want to know which winter vegetable had the highest production volume in 2019, select ‘Winter Vegetables’ from the filter pane and easily see which had the highest production volume. Then, if you want to see how this has changed over the past years, and if the most produced vegetables of 2019 were the same 5 years ago or if they have changed, you can do so by adjusting the year filter.
On the final report, there is a Crop Calendar which can help you understand the period of sowing and harvesting the crops. As cropping periods are not fixed dates, but specified ranges of dates, this calendar can help you to easily identify which crops are sown and harvested in which times of the year very easily.
In conclusion, you can use this report to find out all kinds of information regarding the production, yield, and area of cultivation of these crops. Hopefully, you can now realize the potential of this powerful dashboard, and the depth of the insights you can easily gather from this tool.