Green revolution impacts in Bangladesh : exploring adaptation pathways for enhancing national food security

Bangladesh is considered one of the countries most likely to be affected by negative impacts of climate change. Indeed, a wide range of climate-induced threats endangers national food security. Furthermore, the peculiar environmental characteristics of Bangladesh make it particularly difficult to design and implement comprehensive policies to support agricultural development. At present, national policy-makers need to plan adequate strategies to ensure food security for the growing population while facing biophysical constraints and new challenges (e.g. climate change) that may jeopardize their efforts. Some scientists call for a second Green Revolution (GR) to reach this goal, even though the net effects of the first GR in Bangladesh are still widely debated. The article analyses the practicability of a second GR in Bangladesh by combining a quantitative analysis of the past dynamics of national rice production and a qualitative assessment of key sectorial issues with local stakeholders. The study concludes that to merely re-apply the standard GR pattern would be neither sustainable nor entirely effective, and new research approaches are needed to plan adequate policies for a climate-proof food security.