Welfare Consequences of Green Revolution Technology: Changes in Bangladeshi Food Production and Diet

The Poirier kinked exponential method as used by Boyce (1986) is adopted to examine changes in the Bangladeshi crop sector in the 1947–84 period using aggregate time series data. This is claimed to be a superior approach to earlier ones and it is the first time that non‐cereal food crops have been given extensive consideration. Growth rates in output of major crops as well as commodity groups are estimated for various sub‐periods with special emphasis on the changes in the period following the Green Revolution. The paper identifies a comparative ‘crowding out’ of non‐cereal crop production as well as other food sources, e.g. fisheries, following the Green Revolution. On the whole, increased cereal production has been absorbed by rising population with per capita availability remaining roughly constant. The availability per capita of pulses, fruits and spices has fallen markedly in the post‐Green Revolution period and on average per capita availability of vegetables has fallen. Furthermore, per capita protein content (both vegetable and animal) of the Bangladeshi diet has declined. The average Bangladeshi diet now appears to be less varied and balanced and a priori less nutritious with adverse welfare implications. Expansion of rice and wheat production has been at the expense of other sources of food such as pulses, fruit, vegetables and fish.