Technological progress has helped Bangladesh to achieve self-sufficiency in rice production in 2001 from a heavy import-dependence, despite doubling of population and a reduction in arable land since its independence in 1971. As the adoption of modern varieties (MV) of rice is reaching a plateau, particularly for the irrigated ecosystem, an important issue is whether the research system will be able to sustain the growth of production. The present paper addresses the following questions: (i) to what extent farmers have been replacing the old MV with the new MV, and (ii) what has been the impact of the variety replacement on productivity and profitability. How crucial is the continuous research and release of improved rice varieties toward improving farm production and income for farmers comes out as a clear message to policymakers from the current paper.

Bangladesh is known as a predominantly male-dominated society with traditional and religious beliefs that restrict women's mobility and participation in economic and social activities. This article is based on national rural representative household-level data collected in 1987 and 2000 from 62 villages in Bangladesh jointly conducted by the International Rice Research Institute and Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies. First, this article depicts patterns of women's work and analyzes the factors that infl uence the gender division of labor. Second, a women empowerment index is developed from the 2000 survey data on intra-household decision-making in different spheres, and its relationship with women's work is then explored. The persistent gender division of labor in rural Bangladesh has been found to be associated with both economic and socio-cultural factors. Rural economic activities within the household were found to have a weak impact on women's empowerment.The major policy implications emerging from the study are (1) enabling and improving the quality of women's education is necessary to increase their participation in marketing activities, for which the gender disparity in earnings is less; and (2) developing desirable social and institutional infrastructures that enable women's mobility outside the home to participate in economic and social activities, and reduce the burden of their domestic work.

Recently there has been a paradigm shift in the focus of aquaculture planning from a top‐down to a demand‐driven approach. Demand‐driven planning for aquaculture development emphasizes that aquaculture development must meet the needs and priorities of stakeholders, and requires processing vast amounts of information ranging from opinions and verbalized needs from primary stakeholders to quantitative data on demand from various stakeholders. However, such an approach is rarely adopted in aquaculture development. In this review, the demand for aquaculture in Bangladesh from different stakeholders, based on an extensive literature review supplemented with an analysis of primary and secondary data, is presented. The analysis shows that gaps persist between the fish yields obtained at research stations and in farmers’ fields and that inefficiency exists among aquaculture operators in Bangladesh. Fish farmers need better technology and enabling environments to reduce yield losses and to improve efficiency in production. Aquaculture planners and policymakers also need to consider demand from different consumer groups at home and abroad.

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