Agricultural cropping pattern among the ethnic people and its effect on their life style health and nutrition

Abstract

Agricultural cropping pattern has a great influence on consumption pattern and has significant role to play in food and nutrition security. In order to increase the agricultural production of any country/part of country, it is necessary to intensify the uses of existing cultivated lands by adopting some of the modern methods like growing high yielding varieties, improved irrigation facilities and adopting multi cropping practices. The existing cropping pattern in the hilly areas of Bangladesh needs to be changed through the adoption of new pattern in order to increase production to meet the requirements of various crops and also to give more economic return to the household (Farmer) through increased income. Increased income usually turns into increased purchasing capacity which leads to adequate consumption of required food. Thus the agricultural cropping pattern has significant affects on food consumption, nutrition, health, life style and food security of the farmers. The objective of the study is to assess the existing agricultural cropping pattern among the ethnic people and its effect on their life style, health and nutrition as well as to develop a comprehensive strategic framework for improving life style, health and nutritional status in that particular population. To study the existing agricultural cropping pattern and to investigate the present status of health and nutrition of the ethnic people of the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh, a multistage cluster sampling was designed for selecting the households from the uplands of the Chittagong Hill Tracts. The sampling frameworks were consisting of primary sampling unit of district, secondary sampling unit of upazila, pre-ultimate sampling unit of village and ultimate sampling unit of household for the data collection. Selection of area was quite critical as there are three districts in the CHT consisting of 25 sub-districts (Upazila) in total. Out of these 25, there were 10 Upazila in Rangamati, 8 in Khagracahari, and 7 in Bandarban District. Considering the available time, budget, accessibility of interviewees and all other aspects, two Upazilas from each district and five villages from each Upazila were randomly selected. A total of 810 households were randomly selected from these three districts.

The present study provides a brief representation on agricultural cropping pattern among the ethnic people of Chittagong Hill Tracts. It also provides an insight into their life style, food security, health and nutrition. As regards education, it is notable that illiteracy rate remain to be in a range of 27-78 % with the Marma having the highest (78.9 %) and the Tripura having the lowest (27%) illiteracy rate. Main occupation of different tribal people such as Chakma, Marma, Shaontal, tanchanga was found to be agriculture. None among the Marma was found to be engaged in service. It may be due to their lower education level as marked by highest rate of illiteracy. As regards age, most of the respondents among ethnic people were found belong to age group 30-45 years, which indicates that majority of the study population was relatively young, giving rise to a demographically favorable situation for development to take place in the future. Most of the tribal people’s monthly income is quite meager, which is below Tk. 500 followed by lower proportion of people having monthly income Tk. 5001-8000 and above. Family expenditure is highest among Tripura followed by Chakma, Tanchanga, Marma and Shaontal. Higher family expenditure among Tripura may be attributed to the higher level of their involvement in service, which provides a sort of cash income. Food preparation technique of the ethnic people was not found scientific. They are unaware of the fact that there is greater loss of vitamins when the vegetables are cut and then washed. In present study, it has been revealed that 4.6% family members did not ever receive balanced diet, while 37.8% family members did always receive balanced diet and about 57.7% family members received balanced diet only occasionally. Gastric problem is the most common disease in CHT. The other noncommunicable diseases such as asthma, diabetic, heart disease and kidney disease cause most of the deaths in the study areas. The housing condition of the ethnic people was found to be very poor. Most of the ethnic people (38.5%) own straw shed with bamboo/straw- fench house. It was also observed that majority of the ethnic people did not follow proper sanitary practices. The per capita per day consumption of nutrients was found to be as follows:- 2510 Kcal, protein- 77.2 g, fat- 37.6 g, iron- 28.4 mg and calcium- 864.2 mg. The estimated per capita per day intake of energy, protein, iron and calcium was higher than the recently revised and updated recommended dietary allowances proposed by the ICMR, 2010. About 10.6% children (five years old or less than five years) were found to be severely malnourished and 16.05% were found mild and moderately malnourished. In the study areas, the nutritional status of girls aged 10-19 years is better than the boys of the same age group. In the study areas, out of 810 ethnic households, 217 households (26.9%) were engaged in agriculture. It was also observed that 56% households use to harvest single crop, 26% households use to harvest double crops and 11% households use to harvest triple crops in a year, while only 7% households use to practice traditional jhum cultivation. It was found that 97.2% family members use to eat rice in the morning, followed by 100% in the mid-day and 13% at night. Nobody was found who ate bread at any time of the day. Life style, food security, health and nutritional status of the ethnic people are greatly influenced by their agricultural cropping pattern. So, further efforts should be continued for the promotion and sustainable crop production in the hilly areas of Bangladesh. The hill farmers have limited knowledge about post harvest processing of fruits and vegetables. For his reason, a number of products get lost before marketing. So, post-harvest technology program for horticultural crops should be introduced in the hilly areas. Jhum farming cannot be suddenly discontinued. In this situation, jhum cultivation should be modernized through replacing jhum crops with modern crop varieties suitable for hill farming.